"Old fool! Go!" he cried. "You will be appointed as headmaster!
Couldn't you have asked me for an annuity of a thousand crowns rather
than a murderous wish? Your visit would have cost me nothing. There
are a hundred thousand situations to be had in France, but I have only
one life. A man's life is worth more than all the situations in the
world.--Jonathan!"
Jonathan appeared.
"This is your doing, double-distilled idiot! What made you suggest
that I should see M. Porriquet?" and he pointed to the old man, who
was petrified with fright. "Did I put myself in your hands for you to
tear me in pieces? You have just shortened my life by ten years!
Another blunder of this kind, and you will lay me where I have laid my
father. Would I not far rather have possessed the beautiful Foedora?
And I have obliged that old hulk instead--that rag of humanity! I had
money enough for him. And, moreover, if all the Porriquets in the
world were dying of hunger, what is that to me?"
Raphael's face was white with anger; a slight froth marked his
trembling lips; there was a savage gleam in his eyes. The two elders
shook with terror in his presence like two children at the sight of a
snake. The young man fell back in his armchair, a kind of reaction
took place in him, the tears flowed fast from his angry eyes.
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