e! And what is that? Neither the one nor the other.
It's a disgrace for any woman! A mere halfway marriage!"

"It would be legal, and she'd have a title."

"A title! What would that amount to?"

"I've heard that you Americans are fond of titles, and that your rich
women bring their daughters to Europe to marry them!"

"An infinitesimal minority, Weber. It's true that we have such foolish
women, but the rest of us regard them with contempt."

"He could offer her vast wealth and even as a morganatic wife a great
position."

"I think you're testing me. Weber, trying to see what I will say. Well,
I will say this. I don't believe that Julie would accept Auersperg on
any terms, not if he were to make her a real princess of the oldest
princely house in the world, not if he were to lay the fortunes of the
Rothschilds at her feet. She is of good French republican stock, and she
is a thorough republican herself."

Weber smiled a little.

"Your faith in Mademoiselle Lannes is great," he said, "and I can see
that it proceeds, in part at least, from a just and pure emotion."

John reddened. He saw that he had laid bare his soul, but he was not
ashamed. Once more he strengthened his heart and now he resolved upon a
plan.

"The snowfall is decreasing fast," he said. "Auersperg and his troop
can't be far from here. The traveling is too hard for them to travel
swiftly, even if they have automobiles. I shall go to the hospital camp,
raise a force and search the country. The commandant will give me
soldiers readily, because it would be worth while to capture such a man
as Auersperg--behind our lines, too."

"I don't wish to discourage you," said Weber, "but I doubt whether you
can find him."

"Maybe so and maybe not," said John, and then he remembered the
automobile in which Julie and the Picards had come. Doubtless it was
safe behind the cathedral where they had left it, and he could force it
through the snow much faster than he could walk.

"Come!" he exclaimed to Weber. "I know of a way to save time."

He rushed through the snow to the rear of the cathedral and Weber,
without question, followed him. The automobile was there, well supplied,
and John sprang into the front seat. He was no skillful driver, but he
had learned enough to manage a machine in some fashion, and powerful
emotions were driving him on.

"Up, Weber!" he cried.

"Which way are you going?"

"To the hospital camp, of course, and we'll just touch t