“I suppose the third leg of the stool broke,” said Verbrugge sententiously.
“Ah, well, that leg may have broken; but it was not this that made you fall. That leg broke because you fell. Before any other opening you would have held out on that stool a whole year; but here you had to fall, even if the stool had had thirteen legs, nay, even if you had stood on the floor.”
“I am agreeable,” said Duclari. “I see that you have made up your mind to make me come down coûte que coûte. I am now lying down full length . . . but I really don’t know why.”
“Well, now, this all the same is quite simple! You suddenly saw a woman attired in black, kneeling down before a block. And she bowed her head, and white as silver was the neck that shone against the black velvet. And near by stood a man with a large sword, and he held it up high, and his eye gazed on that white neck, and he mentally traced the arc his sword would describe, so that there . . . there between those vertebræ it would be driven in with precision and force . . . and then you fell, Duclari. You fell because you saw all this, and therefore you exclaimed: ‘O, God!’ In no way because there were only three legs to your stool. And long after you had been set free from Fotheringay—I should imagine through the intermediation of your cousin, or because the people got tired of keeping you there longer free of charge, without their being obliged to do so, like a canary—long after, even to this very day, you still dream waking of that woman, and in your sleep you suddenly start awake, and fall down on your couch with a heavy thud, because you are trying to seize the arm of the executioner. Is it not so?”
“I’m ready to believe it, but I really cannot say definitely, as I have never looked through a hole in the wall at Fotheringay.”
“Right, right! Neither have I. But now I take a painting representing the decapitation of Mary Stuart. We’ll assume that the presentation is perfect. There it hangs, in a gilt frame, by a red cord, if you like . . . I know what you are going to say, all right!
