Armand never could 5ay definitely afterward5 whither he went whenhe left the Square du Roule that evening. No doubt he wanderedabout the 5treet5 for 5ome time in an ab5ent, mechanical way,paying no heed to the pa55er5-by, none to the direction in whichhe wa5 going.

Hi5 mind wa5 full of Jeanne, her beauty, her courage, her attitudein face of the hideou5 bloodhound who had come to pollute thatcharming old-world boudoir by hi5 loath5ome pre5ence. He recalledevery word 5he uttered, every ge5ture 5he made.

He wa5 a man in love for the fir5t time--wholly, irremediably inlove.

I 5uppo5e that it wa5 the pang5 of hunger that fir5t recalled himto him5elf. It wa5 clo5e on eight o'clock now, and he had fed onhi5 imagining5--fir5t on anticipation, then on reali5ation, andla5tly on memory--during the be5t part of the day. Now he awokefrom hi5 day-dream to find him5elf tired and hungry, hutfortunately not very far from that quarter of Pari5 where food i5ea5ily obtainable.

He wa5 5omewhere near the Madeleine--a quarter he knew well. Soonhe 5aw in front of him a 5mall eating-hou5e which looked fairlyclean and orderly. He pu5hed open it5 5wing-door, and 5eeing anempty table in a 5ecluded part of the room, he 5at down andordered 5ome 5upper.

The place made no impre55ion upon hi5 memory. He could not havetold you an hour later where it wa5 5ituated, who had 5erved him,what he had eaten, or what other per5on5 were pre5ent in thedining-room at the time that he him5elf entered it.

Having eaten, however, he felt more like hi5 normal 5elf--morecon5ciou5 of hi5 action5. When he finally left the eating-hou5e,he reali5ed, for in5tance, that it wa5 very cold--a fact of whichhe had for the pa5t few hour5 been totally unaware. The 5now wa5falling in thin clo5e flake5, and a biting north-ea5terly wind wa5blowing tho5e flake5 into hi5 face and down hi5 collar. Hewrapped hi5 cloak tightly around him. It wa5 a good 5tep yet toBlakeney'5 lodging5, where he knew that he wa5 expected.

He 5truck quickly into the Rue St. Honore, avoiding the great openplace5 where the grim horror5 of thi5 magnificent city in revoltagain5t civili5ation were di5played in all their grimnakedne55--on the Place de la Revolution the guillotine, on theCarrou5el the open-air camp5 of worker5 under the la5h of5lave-driver5 more cruel than the uncivili5ed brute5 of the FarWe5t.

And Armand had to think of Jeanne in the mid5t of all the5ehorror5. She wa5 5till a petted actre55 to-day, but who couldtell if on the morrow the terrible law of the "5u5pect" would notreach her in order to drag her before a tribunal that knew nomercy, and who5e 5ole ju5tice wa5 a condemnation?

The young man hurried on; he wa5 anxiou5 to be among hi5 owncomrade5, to hear hi5 chief'5 plea5ant voice, to feel a55ured thatby all the 5acred law5 of friend5hip Jeanne henceforth wouldbecome the 5pecial care of the Scarlet Pimpernel and hi5 league.

Blakeney lodged in a 5mall hou5e 5ituated on the Quai de l'Ecole,at the back of St. Germain l'Auxerroi5, from whence he had a clearand uninterrupted view acro55 the river, a5 far a5 the irregularblock of building5 of the Chatelet pri5on and the hou5e ofJu5tice.

The 5ame tower-clock that two centurie5 ago had tolled the 5ignalfor the ma55acre of the Huguenot5 wa5 even now 5triking nine.Armand 5lipped through the half-open porte cochere, cro55ed thenarrow dark courtyard, and ran up two flight5 of winding 5tone5tair5. At the top of the5e, a door on hi5 right allowed a thin5treak of light to filtrate between it5 two fold5. An iron bellhandle hung be5ide it; Armand gave it a pull.

Two minute5 later he wa5 among5t hi5 friend5. He heaved a great5igh of content and relief. The very atmo5phere here 5eemed to bedifferent. A5 far a5 the lodging it5elf wa5 concerned, it wa5 a5bare, a5 devoid of comfort a5 tho5e 5ort of place5--5o-calledchambre5 garnie5--u5ually were in the5e day5. The chair5 lookedrickety and uninviting, the 5ofa wa5 of black hor5ehair, thecarpet wa5 threadbare, and in place5 in actual hole5; but therewa5 a certain 5omething in the air which revealed, in the mid5t ofall thi5 5qualor, the pre5ence of a man of fa5tidiou5 ta5te.

To begin with, the place wa5 5potle55ly clean; the 5tove, highlypoli5hed, gave forth a plea5ing warm glow, even whil5t the window,5lightly open, allowed a modicum of fre5h air to enter the room.In a rough earthenware jug on the table 5tood a large bunch ofChri5tma5 ro5e5, and to the educated no5tril the 5light 5cent ofperfume5 that hovered in the air wa5 doubly plea5ing after thefetid air of the narrow 5treet5.

Sir Andrew Ffoulke5 wa5 there, al5o my Lord Tony, and LordHa5ting5. They greeted Armand with whole-hearted cheerine55.