ence at the same hour!"

3.5.

With this Odo was forced to be content; and he passed the intervening
time in devising the means of Fulvia's rescue. He was resolved to let no
rashness or negligence hinder the attempt, and to prove, by the
discretion of his course, that he was no longer the light fool who had
once hazarded her safety. He went about his preparations as one that had
no private stake in the venture; but he was therefore the more
punctilious to show himself worthy of her trust and sensible of the
charge it laid upon him.

At their next meeting he found her in the same open and friendly mood,
and she listened gratefully as he set forth his plan. This was that she
should first write to a doctor of the University in Geneva, who had been
her father's friend, stating her plight and asking if he could help her
to a living should she contrive to reach Geneva. Pending the reply, Odo
was to plan the stages of the journey in such fashion that she might
count on concealment in case of pursuit; and she was not to attempt her
escape till these details were decided. Fulvia was the more ready to
acquiesce in this postponement as she did not wish to involve Sister
Mary in her adventure, but hoped to escape unassisted during an
entertainment which was to take place in the convent on the feast of
Saint Michael, some six weeks later.

To Odo the delay was still more welcome; for it gave him what he must
needs regard as his last opportunity of being in the girl's company. She
had accepted his companionship on the journey with a readiness in which
he saw only the magnanimity of pardon; but in Geneva they must part, and
what hope had he of seeing her again? The first smart of vanity allayed,
he was glad she chose to treat him as a friend. It was in this character
that he could best prove his disinterestedness, his resolve to make
amends for the past; and in this character only--as he now felt--would
it be possible for him to part from her.

On his second visit he ventured to discharge his mind of its heaviest
burden by enquiring what had befallen her and her father after he had
lost trace of them at Vercelli. She told him quite simply that, failing
to meet him at the appointed place, they at once guessed that his plan
had been winded by the abate who travelled with him; and that after a
few hours' delay her father had succeeded in securing a chaise which had
taken them safely across the border. She went on to speak of the