who got out of it, and he turned again into the
interior of the room. His wife had sunk into a chair, her brother was
locking up in a cabinet the book which he had promised to take care of
for her. The dead silence made the noise of slowly ascending footsteps
on the stairs painfully audible. At last the door opened softly.

"Citizen Danville, health and fraternity!" said Lomaque, appearing
in the doorway, followed by his agents. "Citizen Louis Trudaine?" he
continued, beginning with the usual form.

Rose started out of her chair; but her brother's hand was on her lips
before she could speak.

"My name is Louis Trudaine," he answered.

"Charles!" cried his sister, breaking from him and appealing to her
husband, "who are these men? What are they here for?"

He gave her no answer.

"Louis Trudaine," said Lomaque, slowly, drawing the order from his
pocket, "in the name of the Republic, I arrest you."

"Rose, come back," cried Trudaine.

It was too late; she had broken from him, and in the recklessness of
terror, had seized her husband by the arm.

"Save him!" she cried. "Save him, by all you hold dearest in the world!
You are that man's superior, Charles--order him from the room!"

Danville roughly shook her hand off his arm.

"Lomaque is doing his duty. Yes," he added, with a glance of
malicious triumph at Trudaine, "yes, doing his duty. Look at me as you
please--your looks won't move me. I denounced you! I admit it--I glory
in it! I have rid myself of an enemy, and the State of a bad citizen.
Remember your secret visits to the house in the Rue de Clery!"

His wife uttered a cry of horror. She seized his arm again with both
hands--frail, trembling hands--that seemed suddenly nerved with all the
strength of a man's.

"Come here--come here! I must and will speak to you!"

She dragged him by main force a few paces back, toward an unoccupied
corner of the room. With deathly cheeks and wild eyes she raised herself
on tiptoe, and put her lips to her husband's ear. At that instant
Trudaine called to her:

"Rose, if you speak I am lost!"

She stopped at the sound of his voice, dropped her hold on her husband's
arm, and faced her brother, shuddering.

"Rose," he continued, "you have promised, and your promise is sacred.
If you prize your honor, if you love me, come here--come here, and be
silent."

He held out his hand. She ran to him; and, laying her head on his bosom,
burst into a passion of tears.

Danv