Then, "Have you taken the stuff ?" he muttered.
"I?
No! But she has!" And on that, seeing the change in the other's face--for, for once, the scholar's mask slipped and suffered his consternation to appear--Blondel laughed triumphantly: in torture himself, he revelled in a disaster that touched another.

"She has! She has!" "She?
Who ?" "The girl of the house! Anne you call her! Curse her! child of perdition, as she is! She!" And he clawed the air.
"She has taken it ?" Basterga spoke incredulously, but his brow was damp, his cheeks were a shade more sallow than usual; he did not deceive the other's penetration.

"Impossible!" he continued, striving to rally his forces.

"Why should she take it?
She has no illness, no disease! Try"-- he swallowed something--"to be clear, man.

Try to be clear.