,
in your natural voice, and you must prepare yourself for a shock.
He is at present a mere wreck, so changed that you will hardly know
him."

"You are telling me the truth, Harry? You are not hiding from me
that he is dying?"

"No, dear; I believe, on my honour, that he is out of danger now,
and that he is progressing. It is his mind more than his body that
needs curing. It may be a long and difficult task, Marie, before he
is himself again; but I believe that with your care and companionship
he will get round in time, but it may be months before that."

"Time is nothing," Marie said. "But what about the girls?"

"They must still be under my charge, Marie. I shall start with
them in a day or two and try to make for the sea-shore, and then
across to England. Suspicions have been aroused; they have already
been denounced, and may be arrested at any time. Therefore it is
absolutely necessary that they should fly at once; but I thought
that you would consider it your first duty to stay with Victor,
seeing that to him your presence is everything, while you could do
nothing to assist your sisters, and indeed the fewer of us there
are the better."

"Certainly it is my duty," Marie said firmly.

"You will be perfectly safe here under the care of Jacques and his
wife. They have already given out to their neighbours that Victor's
fiance is coming to help nurse him, and even if by any possibility
a suspicion of your real position arises, you have Robespierre's
pardon as a protection. This state of things cannot last for
ever; a reaction must come; and then if Victor is cured, you will
be able to escape together to England."

"Leave me a few minutes by myself, Harry. All this has come so
suddenly upon me that I feel bewildered."

"Certainly," Harry said. "It is best that you should think things
over a little. No wonder you feel bewildered and shaken with all
the trials you have gone through."

Marie went to her room and returned in a quarter of an hour.

"I am ready now," she said, and by the calm and tranquil expression
of her face Harry felt that she could be trusted to see Victor.

"I have a feeling," she went on, "that everything will come right
in the end. I have been saved almost by a miracle, and I cannot
but feel that my life has been spared in order that I might take
my place here. As to the girls, it was a shock at first when you
told me that fresh danger threatened them, and that I should not
be able to