ripped to the floor with a sound like rain. Then he caught sight of
Desiree's face.

"He is alive, I tell you that," he said abruptly. "And well, so far as
we know. It was at Kowno that we got news of him. I have a letter."

He opened his cloak, which was stiff like cardboard and creaked when
he bent the rough cloth. Under his cloak he wore a Russian peasant's
sheepskin coat, and beneath that the remains of his uniform.

"A dog's country," he muttered, as he breathed on his fingers.

At last he found the letter, and gave it to Desiree.

"You will have to make your choice," he commented, with a grimace
indicative of a serious situation, "like any other woman. No doubt you
will choose wrong."

Desiree went up two steps in order to be nearer the lamp, and they all
watched her as she opened the letter.

"Is it from Charles?" asked Mathilde, speaking for the first time.

"No," answered Desiree, rather breathlessly.

Barlasch nudged Lisa, indicated his own mouth, and pushed her towards
the kitchen. He nodded cunningly to Mathilde, as if to say that they
were now free to discuss family affairs; and added, with a gesture
towards his inner man--

"Since last night--nothing."

In a few minutes Desiree, having read the letter twice, handed it to her
sister. It was characteristically short.

"We have found a man here," wrote Louis d'Arragon, "who travelled as far
as Vilna with Charles. There they parted. Charles, who was ordered to
Warsaw on staff work, told his friend that you were in Dantzig, and
that, foreseeing a siege of the city, he had written to you to join him
at Warsaw. This letter has doubtless been lost. I am following Charles
to Warsaw, tracing him step by step, and if he has fallen ill by the
way, as so many have done, shall certainly find him. Barlasch returns
to bring you to Thorn, if you elect to join Charles. I will await you at
Thorn, and if Charles has proceeded, we will follow him to Warsaw."

Barlasch, who had watched Desiree, now followed Mathilde's eyes as they
passed to and fro over the closely written lines. As she neared the
end, and her face, upon which deep shadows had been graven by sorrow and
suspense, grew drawn and hopeless, he gave a curt laugh.

"There were two," he said, "travelling together--the Colonel de Casimir
and the husband of--of la petite. They had facilities--name of God!--two
carriages and an escort. In the carriages they had some of the Emperor's
playthings--holy pictu