they have a suspicion that the middle and upper classes have
food concealed in their houses, they will break in and sack them. That
would only be human nature, and therefore in the interest of order alone
a decree forbidding anyone to have private stores would have to be
passed; besides it would make the food go much further, for you may be
sure that everything will be doled out in the smallest quantities
sufficient to keep life together, and before the end of the siege comes
each person may only get two or three ounces of bread a day."

Madame Michaud nodded as if prepared to be reduced even to that
extremity.

"You are right, monsieur, I am going to get stuff and to make a great
number of small bags to hold the flour; then we shall hide it away under
the boards in many places, so that if they find some they may not find
it all."

"The idea is a good one, madame, but it has its disadvantages. If they
find one parcel they will search so closely everywhere that they will
find the rest. For that reason one good hiding-place, if you could
invent one, would be better than many."

"One does not know what is best to do," Madame Michaud said, with a
gesture of tragic despair. "Who could have thought that such a thing
could happen to Paris!"

"It is unexpected, certainly," Cuthbert agreed, "but it has been
foreseen, otherwise they would never have taken the trouble to build
this circle of forts round Paris. They are useful now not only in
protecting the city but in covering a wide area, where the cattle and
sheep may feed under the protection of the guns. I don't think we are
as likely to be as badly off for meat as for bread, for after the flocks
and herds are all eaten up there are the horses, and of these there must
be tens of thousands in Paris."

"That is a comfort, certainly," the Frenchwoman said, calmly, while Mary
Brander made a little gesture of disgust.

"I have never tried horseflesh myself, at least that I know of, but they
say it is not so bad; but I cannot think that they will have to kill the
horses for food. The country will not wait until we are reduced to that
extremity."

"Mr. Hartington has joined one of the regiments of volunteers, Madame
Michaud."

"That is good of you, monsieur; my husband is in the National Guard, and
they say every one will have to take up a musket; but as you are a
foreigner, of course this would not apply to you."

"Well, for the time being I consider myself a Parisian,