and high-born air.

"You seem to utterly forget, Monsieur, the nature of the charge upon
which he has been arraigned," she said, in a tired voice.

"Why, no," he answered, and he smiled airily; "he was sufficiently a
fool to be lured by the brightest eyes in France into a service for
their mistress. My faith! He's not the first by many a thousand whom a
woman's soft glances have undone--"

"The degree in which you profit by the service he is doing those bright
eyes, appears singularly beneath the dignity of your notice."

"What a jester you are becoming, ma mie," he laughed and at the sound
she shuddered again and drew mechanically nearer to the fire as though
her shuddering was the result of cold.

"It is yet possible that he may not die," she said almost as if speaking
to herself. "They have offered him his liberty, and his reinstatement
even--upon conditions."

"How interesting!" he murmured nonchalantly. "They have an odd way of
dispensing justice."

"The conditions imposed are that he shall amend the wrong he has done,
and deliver up to the Convention the person of one ci-devant Vicomte
d'Ombreval."

"My God!"

It was a gasp of sudden dismay that broke from the young nobleman. The
colour swept out of his face, and his eyes dilated with horror. Watching
him Suzanne observed the sudden change, and took a fierce joy in having
produced it.

"It interests you more closely now, Monsieur?" she asked.

"Suzanne," he cried, coming a step nearer, and speaking eagerly; "he
knows my whereabouts. He brought me here himself. Are you mad, girl,
that you can sit there so composedly and tell me this?"

"What else would you have me do?" she inquired.

"Do? Why, leave Choisy at once. Come; be stirring. In God's name, girl,
bethink you that we have not a moment to lose. I know these Republicans,
and how far they are to be trusted. This fellow would betray me to save
his skin with as little compunction as--"

"You fool!" she broke in, an undercurrent of fierce indignation
vibrating through her scorn. "What are you saying? He would betray you?
He?" She tossed her arms to Heaven, and burst into a laugh of infinite
derision. "Have no fear of that, M. le Vicomte, for you are dealing with
a nature of a nobility that you cannot so much as surmise. If he were
minded to betray you, why did he not do so to-day, when they offered
him his liberty in exchange for information that would lead to your
recapture?"

"But although he