t time there will be no
danger!"

Thus flattering himself and his master, the Prefect wished her an almost
affectionate good night.

In a few minutes more, nearly all the guests were gone. Angelot, still
in his quaint acting costume, went out to the court with Monsieur de
Sainfoy to see the ladies into their carriages. He then went to change
his clothes, his cousin returning to the salon. Hurrying back into the
long hall, now empty of servants, vast and rather ghostly with its rows
of family portraits dimly lighted, while caverns of darkness showed
where passages opened and bare stone staircases led up or down, he saw
Helene, alone, coming swiftly towards him.

She flew up the stairs, the last landing of which he had just reached on
his way down, where it turned sharply under a high barred window.
Meeting Angelot suddenly, she almost screamed, but stopped herself in
time. He laughed joyfully; he was wildly excited.

"Ah, belle cousine!" he said softly. "Dear, we shall say good night here
better than in the salon!"

Never once, since that hour in the garden ten days ago, had these two
met without witnesses. Helene, as a rule, was far too well guarded for
that. She tried even now, but not successfully, to keep her rather
presumptuous lover at a little distance, but in truth she was too much
enchanted to see him, her only friend, for this pretence of coldness to
last long. Standing with Angelot's arms round her, trembling from head
to foot with joy and fear, she tried between his kisses and tender
words to tell him how indeed he must not stop her, for in real prosaic
truth Madame de Sainfoy had sent her off to bed.

"But why, why, dear angel, before we were all gone! It was the best
thing that could happen--but why?"

"That is what I do not know, and it frightens me a little," said Helene.

"Frightened here with me!"

"Yes, Angelot!" She tried to speak, but he would hardly let her. She
held him back with both hands, and went on hurriedly--"It was mamma's
look--she looked at me so strangely, she spoke severely, as if I had
done wrong, and indeed I have, mon Dieu! but she does not know it, and I
hope she never may. If she knew, I believe she would kill me. Let me go,
I must!"

"One moment, darling! Come away with me! I will fetch a horse and carry
you off. Then it won't matter what any one knows!"

"You are distracted!" Helene began to laugh, though her eyes were full
of tears. "Listen, listen," she said. "Your