pointed out to his companion the
Egyptian statues designed by David on Roman models of the age of
Augustus, and they overheard a Parisian, an old man with powdered hair,
ejaculate to himself:

"Egad! you might think yourself on the banks of the Nile!"

It was three days since Elodie had seen her lover, and serious events
had befallen meantime at the _Amour peintre_. The _citoyen_ Blaise had
been denounced to the Committee of General Security for fraudulent
dealings in the matter of supplies to the armies. Fortunately for
himself, the print-dealer was well known in his Section; the Committee
of Surveillance of the _Section des Piques_ had stood guarantee of his
patriotism with the general committee and had completely justified his
conduct.

This alarming incident Elodie now recounted in trembling accents,
concluding:

"We are quiet now, but the alarm was a hot one. A little more and my
father would have been clapped in prison. If the danger had lasted a few
hours more, I should have come to you, Evariste, to make interest for
him among your influential friends."

Evariste vouchsafed no reply to this, but Elodie was very far from
realizing all his silence portended.

They went on hand in hand along the banks of the river, discoursing of
their mutual fondness in the phrases of Julie and Saint-Preux; the good
Jean-Jacques gave them the colours to paint and prank their love withal.

The Municipality of Paris had wrought a miracle,--abundance reigned for
a day in the famished city. A fair was installed on the _Place des
Invalides_, beside the Seine, where hucksters in booths sold sausages,
saveloys, chitterlings, hams decked with laurels, Nanterre cakes,
gingerbreads, pancakes, four-pound loaves, lemonade and wine. There were
stalls also for the sale of patriotic songs, cockades, tricolour
ribands, purses, pinchbeck watch-chains and all sorts of cheap gewgaws.
Stopping before the display of a petty jeweller, Evariste selected a
silver ring having a head of Marat in relief with a silk handkerchief
wound about the brows, and put it on Elodie's finger.

* * * * *

The same evening Gamelin proceeded to the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec to call on
the _citoyenne_ Rochemaure, who had sent for him on pressing business.
She received him in her bedchamber, reclining on a couch in a seductive
dishabille.

While the _citoyenne's_ attitude expressed a voluptuous languor,
everything about her spoke of her