Maurice Leblanc

“ Then, when I tried to take her hands, she thrust her outstretched arms against my chest, pushed me back with all her might and cried:
“You're a mean coward! Go away! I loathe and hate you!”
Her outburst restored my composure. I was ashamed of what I had done and, making way for her to pass, I opened the door for her and said:
“I beg your pardon, Berangere. Don't be angrier with me than you can help. I promise you it shan't occur again.”
* * * * Once more, the story of the Three Eyes is closely bound up with all the details of my love, not only in my recollection of it, but also in actual fact. ”

“ I've held your skipping-rope for you when you were just a slip of a child! Then why should I now be made to look on you as a woman and to feel that you are indeed a woman... a woman who stirs me to the very depths of my heart? ”

“ It's you!” gasped Berangere.
“It's I on the day when your uncle told me to come here,” I said, astounded, “the day when I first saw a vision on the screen.”
At that moment, on the screen, Noel Dorgeroux beckoned to me from the door of his workshop. We went in together. The Yard remained empty; and then, after an eclipse which lasted only a second or two, the same scene reappeared, the little garden-door opened again and Berangere, all smiles, put her head through. She seemed to be saying:
“Nobody here. They're in the office. Upon my word, I'll risk it!” ”

“ Indeed, my uncle went away without answering one of my questions. I saw him, through the window, crossing the garden.
I gave way to a movement of anger and exclaimed to Berangere:
“I've had enough of this! After all, why should I worry myself to death trying to understand a discovery which, when you think of it, is not a discovery at all? For what does it consist of? No one can respect Noel Dorgeroux more than I do ”

“ She began to laugh:
“You can give it up. I intend to go on. If god-father chooses to distrust us, it's his lookout.”
I did not try to restrain her. She slipped softly between the nearest two sheds. I followed close upon her heels.
In this way we stole to the end of the open ground which occupied the middle of the Yard and we saw Noel Dorgeroux standing by the screen. He had not yet drawn the black-serge curtain.
“Look,” Berangere whispered, “over there: you see a stack of wood with a tarpaulin over it? We shall be all right behind that.”
“But suppose my uncle looks round while we're crossing?” ”