It is the poisoned blood of
the prostitute which poisons my daughter and her child; that
abject creature, she lives, she lives in us! She belongs to our
family--he has given her a seat at our hearth! He has soiled the
imagination and the thoughts of my poor child, as he has soiled
her body. He has united forever in her soul the idea of love
which she has placed so high, with I know not what horrors of the
hospitals. He has tainted her in her dignity and her modesty, in
her love as well as in her baby. He has struck her down with
physical and moral decay, he has overwhelmed her with vileness.
And yet the law is such, the customs of society are such, that
the woman cannot separate herself from that man save by the aid
of legal proceedings whose scandal will fall upon herself and
upon her child!"
Monsieur Loches had been pacing up and down the room as he spoke,
and now he clenched his fists in sudden fury.
"Very well! I will not address myself to the law. Since I
learned the truth I have been asking myself if it was not my duty
to find that monster and to put a bullet into his head, as one
does to a mad dog. I don't know what weakness, what cowardice,
has held me back, and decided me to appeal to the law. Since the
law will not protect me, I will seek justice for myself. Perhaps
his death will be a good warning for the others!"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that this was no
affair of his and that he would not try to interfere.
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