heads forward. "I was afraid of them, and I
ran, from fear, into the first open house."

Monsieur Jausion winked to the clerk. "Into this house, then?" he asked
in a caressing voice, while the clerk seated himself on the bench near
the stove and wrote in a crouching position.

Clarissa continued in the same plaintive whisper: "I opened the door of
this room. Somebody seized me by the arm and led me into the alcove. He
enjoined me to be silent. It was Bastide Grammont."

At last the name! But how different it was to pronounce it than merely
to think it! Clarissa paused, while she closed her eyes and elapsed her
hands convulsively. "After leaving me alone a while," she resumed as if
speaking in her sleep, "he returned, bade me follow him and led me into
the street. There he stood still and asked whether I knew him. I first
said yes, then no. Thereupon he asked me if I had seen anything, and I
said no. 'Go away!' he ordered, and I went. But I had not reached the
centre of the town when he was again at my side and took my hand in
his. 'I am not one of the murderers,' he protested, 'I met you and my
only object was to save you. Swear that you will remain silent, swear
on your father's life.' I swore, whereupon he left me. And that is
all."

Monsieur Jausion smiled skeptically. "You claim, Madame, to have fled
in here from the street," he remarked, "but it has been established by
unexceptionable testimony that the gate was locked from eight o'clock
on. How do you explain that?"

Clarissa remained mute, even her breath seemed to stop. The Prefect
motioned to Monsieur Jausion to desist; for the present enough had been
attained, it was enough that Bastide Grammont had been recognized by
Clarissa. The resolve to force the criminal, who denied all share in
the guilt, to a confession by having him unexpectedly confront the
witness, came as a matter of course.

The gentlemen led Clarissa to the carriage, as she was scarcely able to
walk. At home she lapsed into a peculiar state. First she lay back
lethargically in a chair; suddenly she sprang up and cried: "Take away
the murderers!" The door opened and the terrified face of a servant
appeared in the crack. All the domestics stood waiting in the hall,
most of them resolved to leave the President's service. Clarissa saw
herself deprived of all the protection of love, and cast out from the
circle where birth is respected and binding forms are recognized as the
least of duties.