as no danger at all, and halted for the night, but there were
travelers on the road behind him who were more cautious. They made a
wide detour by devious bypaths, and came at length to a lane which
joined the Soisy road between the Lion d'Or and Paris. They had taken
care to avoid other travelers as far as possible, and even now the sound
of a horse upon the main road made them draw into the shelter of some
trees and wait. Through the trees, only a few paces up the lane, they
had a good view of the horseman as he came.

"Look, Seth!"

"Our swaggering friend of Tremont," was the answer. "There has been
devil's work along this road perchance."

"Sabatier," murmured Barrington.

There was no doubt of it. He passed them at no greater distance than a
stone's throw, and he was a man too marked in features to be mistaken.
He went his way, unconscious of their presence, to carry his good news
to the Rue Valette in Paris.

"There's something in that man's face which tells me that I shall
quarrel with him some day," said Seth. "I can't help feeling that I
shall live to see him a corpse."

"We must wait a little," said Barrington. "We must not run the risk of
overtaking him."

It was in no way a reply to or a comment on Seth's remark, but rather
the outcome of the recollection that Sabatier had said that all true
patriots must needs meet with him in Paris. Naturally, Sabatier was
closely associated in Barrington's mind with his self-imposed mission to
Beauvais, and his unexpected presence here on the Soisy road set him
speculating once more on the whole circumstances of his adventure. He
had had enough of women to last him a lifetime, he had declared to Seth,
and he meant it. Seth had smiled. His companion was not the first man
who had said the same thing, and yet before half the year was out had
been sighing for another woman's favor. Richard Barrington might hold to
his conviction longer than that, but there are many half years in a
lifetime, and the indefinite variety of women gave few men the chance of
escape. For the present, Seth never doubted that his master had had his
lesson, and was glad. There were periods in a man's life into which a
woman should not enter, either in reality or in thought; they were but
drags on the turning wheels of circumstance. This was such a period, and
Seth let a great load of anxiety slip from him as the distance between
them and Beauvais increased. Barrington's silence as they rode did