he not, in his news sheet,
counselled resignation as the proper thing for the people of Paris?

And the young man, in a sweet voice, broken by long-drawn sighs,
deplored the fate of the Republic, betrayed by the men in whom she had
put her trust,--Danton rejecting the notion of a tax on the rich,
Robespierre opposing the permanence of the Sections, Marat, whose
pusillanimous counsels were paralyzing the enthusiasm of the citizens.

"Ah!" he cried, "how feeble such men appear beside Leclerc and Jacques
Roux!... Roux! Leclerc! _ye_ are the true friends of the people!"

Gamelin did not hear these remarks, which would have angered him; he had
gone into the next room to don his blue coat.

"You may well be proud of your son," observed the _citoyenne_
Rochemaure, addressing the _citoyenne_ Gamelin. "He is a great man;
talent and character both make him so."

In answer, the widow Gamelin gave a good account of her son, yet without
making much boast of him before a lady of high station, for she had been
taught in her childhood that the first duty of the lowly is humility
towards the great. She was of a complaining bent, having indeed only too
good cause and finding in such jeremiads a salve for her griefs. She was
garrulous in her revelations of all the hardships she had to bear to
any whom she supposed in a position to relieve them, and Madame de
Rochemaure seemed to belong to that class. She made the most, therefore,
of this favourable opportunity and told a long and breathless story of
their distresses,--how mother and son were both dying of slow
starvation. Pictures could not be sold any more; the Revolution had
killed business dead. Victuals were scarce and too dear for words....

The good dame poured out her lamentations with all the loose-lipped
volubility her halting tongue was capable of, so as to get them all
finished by the time her son, whose pride would not brook such whining,
should reappear. She was bent on attaining her object in the shortest
possible time,--that of touching a lady whom she deemed rich and
influential, and enlisting her sympathy in her boy's future. She felt
sure that Evariste's good looks were an asset on her side to move the
heart of a well-born lady. And so they were; the _citoyenne_ Rochemaure
proved tender-hearted and was melted to think of Evariste's and his
mother's sufferings. She made plans to alleviate them; she had rich men
amongst her friends and would get them to buy the artis