' Then you agreed to
it, you got into the boat. You see that we murdered him together."
"It is not true," she answered. "I was crazy, I don't know what I did,
but I never wanted to kill him. You alone committed the crime."
These denials tortured Laurent. As he had said, the idea of having an
accomplice relieved him. Had he dared, he would have attempted to prove
to himself that all the horror of the murder fell upon Therese. He
more than once felt inclined to beat the young woman, so as to make her
confess that she was the more guilty of the two.
He began striding up and down, shouting and raving, followed by the
piercing eyes of Madame Raquin.
"Ah! The wretch! The wretch!" he stammered in a choking voice, "she
wants to drive me mad. Look, did you not come up to my room one evening,
did you not intoxicate me with your caresses to persuade me to rid
you of your husband? You told me, when I visited you here, that he
displeased you, that he had the odour of a sickly child. Did I think
of all this three years ago? Was I a rascal? I was leading the peaceful
existence of an upright man, doing no harm to anybody. I would not have
killed a fly."
"It was you who killed Camille," repeated Therese with such desperate
obstinacy that she made Laurent lose his head.
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