aid lovers calmed by
the possession of a conquered liberty, to condemn without appeal the
fierceness of thwarted desire.

I am not ashamed of the warmth of my regard for Miss Haldin. It was, it
must be admitted, an unselfish sentiment, being its own reward. The late
Victor Haldin--in the light of that sentiment--appeared to me not as a
sinister conspirator, but as a pure enthusiast. I did not wish indeed
to judge him, but the very fact that he did not escape, that fact which
brought so much trouble to both his mother and his sister, spoke to me
in his favour. Meantime, in my fear of seeing the girl surrender to the
influence of the Chateau Borel revolutionary feminism, I was more than
willing to put my trust in that friend of the late Victor Haldin. He was
nothing but a name, you will say. Exactly! A name! And what's more,
the only name; the only name to be found in the correspondence between
brother and sister. The young man had turned up; they had come face to
face, and, fortunately, without the direct interference of Madame de
S--. What will come of it? what will she tell me presently? I was
asking myself.

It was only natural that my thought should turn to the young man, the
bearer of the only name uttered in all the dream-talk of a future to be
brought about by a revolution. And my thought took the shape of asking
myself why this young man had not called upon these ladies. He had been
in Geneva for some days before Miss Haldin heard of him first in my
presence from Peter Ivanovitch. I regretted that last's presence at
their meeting. I would rather have had it happen somewhere out of his
spectacled sight. But I supposed that, having both these young people
there, he introduced them to each other.

I broke the silence by beginning a question on that point--

"I suppose Peter Ivanovitch...."

Miss Haldin gave vent to her indignation. Peter Ivanovitch directly he
had got his answer from her had turned upon the _dame de compagnie_ in a
shameful manner.

"Turned upon her?" I wondered. "What about? For what reason?"

"It was unheard of; it was shameful," Miss Haldin pursued, with angry
eyes. "_Il lui a fait une scene_--like this, before strangers. And for
what? You would never guess. For some eggs.... Oh!"

I was astonished. "Eggs, did you say?"

"For Madame de S--. That lady observes a special diet, or something
of the sort. It seems she complained the day before to Peter Ivanovitch
that the eggs were not righ