gallery" occurred.

The third time she had determined to keep the appointment. He
asked for it in the letter he had written in her own room, on the
night of the incident in the gallery, which he left on her desk.
In that letter he threatened to burn her father's papers if she
did not meet him. It was to rescue these papers that she made up
her mind to see him. She did not for one moment doubt that the
wretch would carry out his threat if she persisted in avoiding him,
and in that case the labours of her father's lifetime would be for
ever lost. Since the meeting was thus inevitable, she resolved to
see her husband and appeal to his better nature. It was for this
interview that she had prepared herself on the night the keeper was
killed. They did meet, and what passed between them may be imagined.
He insisted that she renounce Darzac. She, on her part, affirmed
her love for him. He stabbed her in his anger, determined to convict
Darzac of the crime. As Larsan he could do it, and had so managed
things that Darzac could never explain how he had employed the time
of his absence from the chateau. Ballmeyer's precautions were most
cunningly taken.

Larsan had threatened Darzac as he had threatened Mathilde--with
the same weapon, and the same threats. He wrote Darzac urgent
letters, declaring himself ready to deliver up the letters that had
passed between him and his wife, and to leave them for ever, if he
would pay him his price. He asked Darzac to meet him for the
purpose of arranging the matter, appointing the time when Larsan
would be with Mademoiselle Stangerson. When Darzac went to Epinay,
expecting to find Ballmeyer or Larsan there, he was met by an
accomplice of Larsan's, and kept waiting until such time as the