u to see! No! I should--put down
the lantern!"

Having complied with this request, he stood under her in despair.

"Can't you tear the--the--what-you-may-call-it loose?"

"No; it's my skirt,--my dress,--I'm slipping out of it. Look out,
monsieur, for--I'm--coming--oh!"

And come she did, head first, minus the dress skirt, plump into the
startled young man's arms.

CHAPTER V

"Me voila!" said Fouchette, gaining her feet and lightly shaking her
ruffled remains together, as if she were a young pullet that had
calmly fluttered down from the roost.

"Well, you're a bird!" he ejaculated, the more embarrassed of the two.

"Mon Dieu! monsieur, but for you I'd soon have been a dead bird! I
thank you ever so much."

She reached up at him and succeeded in pecking a little kiss on his
chin. It was her first attempt at the masculine mouth and she could
scarcely be censured if she missed it.

"It certainly was a lucky chance that I came this way at the moment,"
he said.

"It was, indeed," she assented.

He was surveying her now by the light of his lantern; and he smiled at
her slight figure in the short petticoat. Her blind confidence in him
and her general assurance amused him.

"Where were you thinking of going, mademoiselle?"

"To Paris."

"Paris!"

The young man almost dropped his lantern. Paris seemed out of reach to
him.

"And why not, monsieur?"

"Er--well, mademoiselle, climbing a tree and throwing one's self head
over heels over a wall--er--and----"

"And leaving ones skirt hanging on the spikes----"

"Yes,--is not the customary way for young ladies to start for Paris.
But I suppose you know what you are about."

"If I only had my skirt."

Fouchette glanced up at the offending member of her attire which she
had cast from her.

"Never mind that,--I'll return and get it. Come with me, mademoiselle.
I live near by, and my mother and sisters will protect you for the
time being. Come! Where's your hat?"

"I didn't have time----"

"You didn't stop to pack your bundle, eh?"

"Not exactly, monsieur."

They walked along silently for a few yards, following the wall.

"You have relatives in Paris, mademoiselle?" he finally asked.

"No, monsieur."

"Friends, then?"

"Well, yes."

"It is good. Paris is no place for a young girl alone. Besides, it is
just now a scene of riot and bloodshed. It is in a state bordering on
revolution. All France is roused. Royalists and Bonapartists have