med to see no light save in Amelie's windows on
the first floor and Charlotte's on the third, might have observed with
surprise that, from eleven o'clock until midnight, the four windows on
the first floor were illuminated. It is true that each was lighted by a
single wax-candle. They might also have seen the figure of a young
girl through the shades, staring in the direction of the village of
Ceyzeriat.

This young girl was Amelie, pale, breathing with difficulty, and seeming
to watch anxiously for a signal.

At the end of a few minutes she wiped her forehead and drew a joyous
breath. A fire was lighted in the direction she had been watching. Then
she passed from room to room, putting out the three candles one after
the other, leaving only the one which was burning in her own room. As if
the fire awaited this return signal, it was now extinguished.

Amelie sat down by her window and remained motionless, her eyes fixed
on the garden. The night was dark, without moon or stars, and yet at
the end of a quarter of an hour she saw, or rather divined, a shadow
crossing the lawn and approaching the window. She placed her single
candle in the furthest corner of her room, and returned to open her
window.

He whom she was awaiting was already on the balcony.

As on the first night when we saw him climb it, the young man put his
arm around the girl's waist and drew her into the room. She made but
slight resistance; her hand sought the cord of the Venetian blind,
unfastened it from the hook that held it, and let it fall with more
noise than prudence would have counselled.

Behind the blind, she closed the window; then she fetched the candle
from the corner where she had hidden it. The light illuminated her face,
and the young man gave a cry of alarm, for it was covered with tears.

"What has happened?" he asked.

"A great misfortune!" replied the young girl.

"Oh, I feared it when I saw the signal by which you recalled me after
receiving me last night. But is it irreparable?"

"Almost," answered Amelie.

"I hope, at least, that it threatens only me."

"It threatens us both."

The young man passed his hand over his brow to wipe away the sweat that
covered it.

"Tell me," said he; "you know I am strong."

"If you have the strength to hear it," said she, "I have none to tell
it." Then, taking a letter from the chimney-piece, she added: "Read
that; that is what I received by the post to-night."

The young man took