He was reassured by the opening lines; but as he read on, and took in the meaning of Elizabeth’s words, Fandor felt as though his heart were bursting with grief.

Elizabeth Dollon had written:

“I seem to be going mad... yes, I love you! Yesterday I should have been glad to become your wife; but there came by the same post as your letter, another, which contained terrible revelations, and proofs of their truth were given me!... I have not the right to curse you – or rather I have not the strength to do it; but never will I marry you, Jérôme Fandor, you, Charles Rambert!”

It seemed to Fandor that everything was turning round about him.... He took a few steps back, staggering. The weight of this terrible past, a past in which he was the innocent victim, but of which he could not clear himself, overwhelmed him.

Fandor cried out, in a voice of despair:

“Fantômas! Fantômas has taken his revenge!” And before the astounded portress, the unhappy young man reeled about and slumped in a heap on the ground.On the other hand, shortly after the extraordinary flight of the banker – Nanteuil to the world in general, but Fantômas to he and Fandor – Juve had received from Monsieur Annion, the supreme head of the police detective department, who only broke silence on sensational occasions, a note sent by pneumatic post:

“Regret keenly that you revealed your personality in such ridiculous circumstances, and that you failed to arrest a great criminal.”

As Juve read these observations, he clenched his fists, and grew livid with rage!

Dinner was a mere farce to the two friends: they did not dine: they had no appetite! Juve and Fandor went over and over in their minds the deplorable events of which, all said and done, they were the victims. They gazed at each other full of self-pity. They felt they were two derelicts afloat on an immense sea of indifferent humanity.

“The worst suffering,” said Fandor, with tears of misery in his voice, “is the pain of love.”

“The most painful of wounds,” said Juve bitterly, “is a wound to self-respect!”

But although these two, men every inch of them, might have their moments of despair, at heart they were fighters of the finest quality.

“Fandor!”

“Juve?”

“You are courageous?”

“I have courage, Juve!”

“Very well, my lad, let us erase the past, and start off afresh in pursuit of Fantômas!... I tell you, the struggle has only begun... Listen! ”

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