g explanation, and
you must bear with me a little."

"Tell me first, where is Monsieur Barrington?" said Jeanne.

"In safety. You have my word for it."

"Whose word?"

"You shall have the whole story, mademoiselle, and you shall presently
see Monsieur Barrington."

Jeanne sat down, and Raymond Latour moved to the window and stood there.

"I must begin in the middle of my story," he said, "it is easier for me,
and you will understand better. On the day of your arrival in Paris, I
met Monsieur Barrington. He was watching a coach which contained a
prisoner who was being escorted by a crowd of patriots to the Abbaye
prison. The sight was new to him; I believe that, single-handed, he
would have made an attempt at a rescue, had I not touched his arm. I
knew who he was, and that he had helped you into Paris. A little later
it was said that you had been arrested in the house of Lucien Bruslart,
and Monsieur Barrington came to me. We both concluded that you were the
prisoner in that coach. I believed Barrington to be an honest man, and I
rescued the prisoner from the Abbaye, and brought her here, only to find
that she was one Pauline Vaison, a woman Bruslart was to marry.
Bruslart, however, had made no effort to save her. He had apparently
sacrificed her to help you, and Barrington had helped him."

"It might appear so, monsieur, but such was not the case," said Jeanne.

"My opinion of Monsieur Barrington is at present in the balance," said
Latour; "Lucien Bruslart I know to be a scoundrel. The release of
Pauline Vaison naturally frightened Bruslart, who has gone into hiding
and is not to be found. Barrington is not a coward, and it was easy to
secure him. I saved him from the mob, but I kept him a prisoner. I
challenged him with his treachery to me, and he denied it, yet
immediately I let him go and had him watched, he straightway found you
at the house of Dr. Legrand in the Rue Charonne. Watching him and his
servant it was discovered that you were to be rescued from Legrand's
house, with the result that you are here."

"In the hands of Monsieur Raymond Latour," said Jeanne, quietly.

"Yes, mademoiselle, though I am surprised that you know me. Monsieur
Barrington is also in my hands."

"Most of this story I already know from Monsieur Barrington," she
returned. "If you will believe my word, I can show you that he was not
in Lucien Bruslart's confidence at all, that Lucien Bruslart from the
first deceived him. If you