!"

I seized her hand and pressed it against my heart, but she offered me her
brow, as on the previous evening, and said: "Until to-morrow."

I kissed her on the brow; but now I no longer strained her hand against my
breast, but her heaving bosom, her throbbing heart.

I went home in a state of delirious ecstasy such as I had never
experienced. Was it the consciousness of a generous action, or was it love
for this adorable creature? I know not whether I slept or woke. I only
know that all the harmonies of nature were singing within me; that the
night seemed endless, and the day eternal; I know that though I wished to
speed the time, I did not wish to lose a moment of the days still to come.

The next day I was in the Rue Ferou at nine o'clock. At half-past nine
Solange made her appearance.

She approached me and threw her arms around my neck.

"Saved!" she said; "my father is saved! And this I owe you. Oh, how I love
you!"

Two weeks later Solange received a letter announcing her father's safe
arrival in England.

The next day I brought her a passport.

When Solange received it she burst into tears.

"You do not love me!" she exclaimed.

"I love you better than my life," I replied; "but I pledged your father my
word, and I must keep it."

"Then, I will break mine," she said. "Yes, Albert; if you have the heart
to let me go, I have not the courage to leave you."

Alas, she remained!

Three months had passed since that night on which we talked of her escape,
and in all that time not a word of parting had passed her lips.

Solange had taken lodgings in the Rue Turenne. I had rented them in her
name. I knew no other, while she always addressed me as Albert. I had
found her a place as teacher in a young ladies' seminary solely to
withdraw her from the espionage of the revolutionary police, which had
become more scrutinizing than ever.

Sundays we passed together in the small dwelling, from the bedroom of
which we could see the spot where we had first met. We exchanged letters
daily, she writing to me under the name of Solange, and I to her under
that of Albert.

Those three months were the happiest of my life.

In the meantime I was making some interesting experiments suggested by one
of the guillotiniers. I had obtained permission to make certain scientific
tests with the bodies and heads of those who perished on the scaffold. Sad
to say, available subjects were not wanting. Not a day passed but thirty