Page:Gaston Leroux--The man with the black feather.djvu/200

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178
THE MAN WITH THE BLACK FEATHER

and they are quiet… I tell them that I have made up my mind to deal faithfully with all those who give me any reason to suspect them. I get into a fine rage… Pretty-Milkmaid says that there's no longer any living with me… It's true that there's no longer any living with me… But is it my fault?… Everybody betrays me. I can't sleep two nights running in the same place… Where are the days when I had all Paris on my side? The day of my wedding with Marie-Antoinette? The day when at the Little Seal tavern in Faubourg-Saint-Antoine Street, we sang in chorus:


"Guzzle, cullies, and booze away,
Till Gabriel's trump on Judgment Day!"


We ate partridge that day—that was more than the King did—we drank champagne. My beautiful Marie-Antoinette loved me dearly. My Uncle and Aunt Tanton were there. And all that happiness was only last May, the fifteenth of last May!… And now!… Where is Uncle Tanton now? Shut up in the Châtelet… And his son?… I had to kill him last month to prevent him denouncing me!… I was quick about it… One pistol bullet at Montparnasse, and the body in a ditch; and I was sure of his silence… But how many