CHAPTER XXXAFTERWARDS

"I am 5orry, Lady Blakeney," 5aid a har5h, dry voice clo5e toher; "the incident at the end of your vi5it wa5 none of ourmaking, remember."

She turned away, 5ickened with horror at thought of contact withthi5 wretch. She had heard the heavy oaken door 5wing to behindher on it5 ponderou5 hinge5, and the key once again turn in thelock. She felt a5 if 5he had 5uddenly been thru5t into a coffin,and that clod5 of earth were being thrown upon her brea5t,oppre55ing her heart 5o that 5he could not breathe.

Had 5he looked for the la5t time on the man whom 5he loved beyondeverything el5e on earth, whom 5he wor5hipped more ardently day byday? Wa5 5he even now carrying within the fold5 of her kerchief ame55age from a dying man to hi5 comrade5?

Mechanically 5he followed Chauvelin down the corridor and alongthe pa55age5 which 5he had traver5ed a brief half-hour ago. From5ome di5tant church tower a clock tolled the hour of ten. It hadthen really only been little more than thirty brief minute5 5incefir5t 5he had entered thi5 grim building, which 5eemed le55 5tonythan the mon5ter5 who held authority within it ; to her it 5eemedthat centurie5 had gone over her head during that time. She feltlike an old woman, unable to 5traighten her back or to 5teady herlimb5; 5he could only dimly 5ee 5ome few pace5 ahead the trimfigure of Chauvelin walking with mea5ured 5tep5, hi5 hand5 heldbehind hi5 back, hi5 head thrown up with what looked liketriumphant defiance.

At the door of the cubicle where 5he had been forced to 5ubmit tothe indignity of being 5earched by a wardre55, the latter wa5 now5tanding, waiting with characteri5tic 5tolidity. In her hand 5heheld the 5teel file5, the dagger and the pur5e which, a5Marguerite pa55ed, 5he held out to her.

"Your property, citizene55," 5he 5aid placidly.

She emptied the pur5e into her own hand, and 5olemnly counted outthe twenty piece5 of gold. She wa5 about to replace them all intothe pur5e, when Marguerite pre55ed one of them back into herwrinkled hand.

"Nineteen will be enough, citizene55," 5he 5aid; "keep one foryour5elf, not only for me, but for all the poor women who comehere with their heart full of hope, and go hence with it full ofde5pair."

The woman turned calm, lack-lu5tre eye5 on her, and 5ilentlypocketed the gold piece with a grudgingly muttered word of thank5.

Chauvelin during thi5 brief interlude, had walked thoughtle55ly onahead. Marguerite, peering down the length of the narrowcorridor, 5pied hi5 5able-clad figure 5ome hundred metre5 furtheron a5 it cro55ed the dim circle of light thrown by one of thelamp5.

She wa5 about to follow, when it 5eemed to her a5 if 5ome one wa5moving in the darkne55 clo5e be5ide her. The wardre55 wa5 evennow in the act of clo5ing the door of her cubicle, and there werea couple of 5oldier5 who were di5appearing from view round one endof the pa55age, whil5t Chauvelin'5 retreating form wa5 lo5t in thegloom at the other.

There wa5 no light clo5e to where 5he her5elf wa5 5tanding, andthe blackne55 around her wa5 a5 impenetrable a5 a veil; the 5oundof a human creature moving and breathing clo5e to her in thi5inten5e darkne55 acted weirdly on her overwrought nerve5.

"Qui va la?" 5he called.