the head of the party; the colonel, the working manager,
was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The Tiphaines
declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the government;
the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. When Rogron
turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, Vinet stopped
the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm.

"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your
shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards
properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time."

He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie.

"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years,
too!"

"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; with
her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so sound
that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. But, all
the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a dreadful fate
to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a friend and
confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river under fire of
the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, you must study
the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same wisdom you have
displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present position. If I get
to be attorney-general you shall command the department. Oh! if you had
been an elector we should be further advanced than we are now; I should
have bought the votes of those two clerks by threatening them with the
loss of their places, and we should have had a majority."

The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed his
thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child was
only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed to
be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when
sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and
give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet relating
to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek opportunities to
find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself as soft as a cat;
he told her how brave her father was and what a misfortune it had been
for her that she lost him.

A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon
Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushe