His first thought was of relief, for he said to himself that the two had sensibly gone into one of the other rooms to “have it out” in peace and quiet.  But following that came the recollection of the woman’s face when she had watched her host across the room.  Her words came back to him:  “I feel a little like Samson to-night....  I should like very much to pull the world down on top of me and kill everybody in it!” Ste. Marie thought of these things, and he began to be uncomfortable.  He found himself watching the yellow-hung doorway beyond, with its intricate Chinese carving of trees and rocks and little groups of immortals, and he found that unconsciously he was listening for something—­he did not know what—­above the chatter and laughter of the people in the room.  He endured this for possibly five minutes, and all at once found that he could endure it no longer.  He began to make his way quietly through the groups of people toward the curtained doorway.

As he went, one of the women near by complained in a loud tone that the servant had disappeared.  She wanted, it seemed, a glass of water, having already had many glasses of more interesting things.  Ste. Marie said he would get it for her, and went on his way.  He had an excuse now.

He found himself in a square, dimly lighted room much smaller than the other.  There was a round table in the centre, so he thought it must be Stewart’s dining-room.  At the left a doorway opened into a place where there were lights, and at the other side was another door closed.  From the room at the left there came a sound of voices, and though they were not loud, one of them, Mlle. Olga Nilssen’s voice, was hard and angry and not altogether under control.  The man would seem to have been attempting to pacify her, and he would seem not to have been very successful.

The first words that Ste. Marie was able to distinguish were from the woman.  She said, in a low, fierce tone: 

“That is a lie, my friend!  That is a lie!  I know all about the road to Clamart, so you needn’t lie to me any longer.  It’s no good.”

She paused for just an instant there, and in the pause St. Marie heard Stewart give a sort of inarticulate exclamation.  It seemed to express anger and it seemed also to express fear.  But the woman swept on, and her voice began to be louder.  She said: 

“I’ve given you your chance.  You didn’t deserve it, but I’ve given it you—­and you’ve told me nothing but lies.  Well, you’ll lie no more.  This ends it.”

Upon that Ste. Marie heard a sudden stumbling shuffle of feet and a low, hoarse cry of utter terror—­a cry more animal-like than human.  He heard the cry break off abruptly in something that was like a cough and a whine together, and he heard the sound of a heavy body falling with a loose rattle upon the floor.