e
Secret Police?"

"N-no, madame," faltered the girl,--"I don't understand. And if----"

"And we are for the restoration----"

"The restoration----"

"Of the throne of France."

"Is it Inspector Loup?" asked Fouchette, suddenly recalling that
personage.

"Inspector Loup,--it is he who is responsible for the withdrawal of
Sister Agnes, mademoiselle."

"Paris,--I will go to Paris!" said Fouchette, brightening up all at
once.

To the two who heard her it was as if Fouchette had said, "I will go
to the moon."

She slipped from between them and darted down the corridor. Before
they had recovered from their astonishment she was out of the building
and out of sight.

Nothing could have been more absurd.

But one girl had succeeded in scaling the high walls that surrounded
the establishment of Le Bon Pasteur, and she had been pursued by
savage dogs kept for such exigencies and brought back in mere shreds
of clothing, with her flesh terribly lacerated. Even once outside, if
the feat were possible and the dogs avoided, how was a bareheaded girl
without a sou to get to Paris, three hundred kilometres? And, that
surmounted, what would become of her in Paris?

It was absurd. It was impossible.

Meanwhile, Fouchette evaded the now lighted buildings in the rear and
was skirting the high walls towards the north with the fleetness of a
young deer.

The grounds of Le Bon Pasteur embraced about ten acres, a well-wooded
section of an ancient park, the buildings, old and new, being on the
side next to the town. By day one might easily see from wall to wall,
the lowest branches of the trees being well clear of the ground, the
latter being trampled grassless, hard, and smooth by thousands of
youthful feet.

It was now growing too dark to see more than a few yards. This did
not prevent Fouchette from making good speed. She knew every inch of
the park. And as she ran her thoughts kept on well ahead.

She had started with the definite idea of leaving the place, but
without the slightest idea of how that was to be accomplished. Like a
frightened rabbit running an enclosure, she sought in vain for some
unheard-of opening,--some breach in the wall, some projections by
which she might scale the frowning barrier.

Now and then she paused to listen intently. There were no pursuers,
apparently. Her heart sank rather than rose at the thought; for it
implied that the chances of her escape were not considered worth an
energetic e