ill
light another pipe while you make up your minds."

It was no easy matter for Marguerite to bring her mind to a decision.
She thought on the one hand of the lonely nights she might have to
pass; on the other, of the irreparable loss the clock would be to
Dumiger. Dumiger clasped her hands in his own, and as his lips clung
to hers he exclaimed, "Perish all things but love." He rose--he was
on the point of desiring the man to take away the clock in payment
of the debt, in the hope that he might redeem it on the morrow, when
the sudden thought struck him that the Count was the instigator of
this act. He caught hold of the man by one arm, which was hanging
listlessly over the back of the chair, and exclaimed--

"Tell me who sent you on this mission."

The man only looked round with an expression of astonishment at his
presumption, and without deigning any reply, he resumed his pipe.

"Was it the Grand Master?" asked Dumiger.

"Obey my orders and ask no questions," said the man. "You had better
follow my example. I have told you already that there is no time to
spare. Tell me what course you intend to take. Give up some articles
in this room--there is that clock, which will do more than pay the
bill--or follow me immediately. There is no other alternative."

The whole conversation with the Grand Master occurred to Dumiger.
There could be no doubt that the clock would go into his possession;
that it was a deep-laid scheme to spoil him of the result of all his
labor. Better, far better, that Marguerite should bear the pain of
separation, than that the clock should be endangered, and by such a
man.

"Marguerite," said Dumiger, in a low voice, after a long pause, "it is
fixed. We must part for a short time. I will write from my prison to
some of my friends; they will not desert me in this necessity. A few
short hours, and I shall return to you, my own Marguerite."

But Marguerite had fainted, and the lips which touched his cheek were
cold and pale.

Slowly she opened those large blue eyes, and although her lips
faltered, the look and the voice were both earnest as she bade him go.

"Yes, Dumiger, you are right: ambition such as yours is a less selfish
passion than love like mine. Leave me for a time. I know the interval
will be short. It is another step toward the greatness to which you
are aspiring."

The man looked at them with a vague and vacant look. He had been
witness to this description of scene so freque