d spend the rest of the evening in Dinard, looking for
him; and it was not until the girl pointed out that he might now be on
his way to England, or a long way off in another direction, that she
became reconciled to returning home.

Excitement seemed in the air that evening, and when they arrived at the
St. Servan quay there were more idlers than usual. They wondered what
was the cause, and when Mademoiselle Therese, with her customary desire
to get at the bottom of everything, asked the reason, she was told that
the strike among the timber-yard men, which had been threatened for
some time, had begun that afternoon, and that work was suspended.

It was all the more astonishing because it had come so suddenly, and
Barbara could hardly tear mademoiselle away from the spot until she
suggested that those at home might not have heard of it yet, and that
she might be the first to tell it to them. Hurrying through the town,
they heard great shouting from the other side of the quay, which made
mademoiselle nearly break into a run with eagerness. As it happened,
however, the news had already spread to their street, and they found
Mademoiselle Loire equally anxious to tell the new-comers what _she_
knew of the matter.

As it was the first strike for many years, the townspeople looked upon
it with a strange mingling of pride and fear. It was stirred up by an
agitator called Mars, and had broken out simultaneously in other ports
too. More _gendarmes_ were sent for in case of need, though
Mademoiselle Loire said it was hoped matters might be arranged amicably
by a meeting between masters and men.

They were still discussing the subject, when a loud shouting was heard,
and they all ran to a disused bedroom in the front of the house and
looked out.

A crowd of men, marching in fours, were coming up the street, led by
one beating a drum, and another carrying a dirty banner with "Liberte,
Equalite, Fraternite" upon it. Barbara's eyes sparkled with
excitement, and she felt almost as if she were back in the times of the
Revolution, for they looked rather a fierce and vicious crew.

"They are some of the strikers," Mademoiselle Therese cried. "We must
withdraw our heads from the windows in case the men get annoyed with us
for staring." But she promptly leaned still farther out, and began
making loud remarks to her sister, on the disgracefulness of such
behaviour.

"You will be heard," Mademoiselle Loire returned, shaking he