human
What did he do? Walter asked, dreading to know what awful outrage might have been offered to his insensible wife as she lay before her ruffian captor.
gpt
What? Tell me all.
human
He tore from his lace cravat, where it hung down over his breast, a piece of it; tore it roughly, raggedly and--and--he placed it in her right hand, clenching the fingers on it. Then he whispered in his lieutenant's ears, 'the evidence against her, mon ami. Yes. Yes. The damning evidence, Vandecque.' Yes--Vandecque. That was the name.
gpt
It shall be thy evidence, too, blackest of devils. The passport to thy master.
human
Do you know more? Is--is--oh! my wife--my wife!--is--has she set out?
gpt
La Châine went to Marseilles a month ago.
human
How fast do they--does la Châine, as you term it--travel?
gpt
But slowly. Especially the chain-gang of women. They must needs go slowly.
human
You should have been well paid for your foul work, he said.
gpt
So paid that never again ought you to have known want. How is it I find you a beggar?
human
Ah! the man cried.
gpt
It was our ruin. We were blown upon somehow to the ministry of police a day or two later for some little errors--Heaven only knows how there were any who could do so, but thus it was. We were imprisoned, ruined. I but escaped the galleys by a chance. Yet, I, too, was ill-treated. I was cast into prison for two months. God help me! I am ruined. There was some private enemy.
human
Doubtless, your previous employer.
gpt
I have thought so.
human
And that other vagabond. That villain, Vandecque! What of him? He is missing.