n to curse his betrayer.

"The payment, Lucien! I warned you. I keep my promise. For you it is the
Place de la Revolution--the guillotine."

The words were shouted at him savagely, and then she leaned back against
the wall in a paroxysm of horrible laughter.

CHAPTER XXVI

ENEMIES OR FRIENDS

To the individual, his affairs, petty though they be, are often of more
moment than those greater doings which have a whole world for stage and
are destined to throw an echo far down the corridors of Time. Most of us
live in a narrow little world, a very mean little world often, and are
never able to mount up a step or two to see how exceedingly mean and
narrow it is. Yet, for all this, the workings of the greater world do
affect us, though we may be unconscious of the fact; our little affairs
are influenced in greater or less degree, as the rippled circles from a
stone's cast spread to the shores of the pond.

Balked greed and craven fear tore at Legrand's very soul when he
returned to the cockloft in the Faubourg St. Antoine and found it empty.
After all he was not to handle the money. He felt like an honest man who
has been cheated, so far was he able to deceive himself. Bruslart had
outwitted him, would perhaps succeed in leaving Paris, and a terrible
lust to get equal with him seized upon the doctor. The chance words of
two men talking in the street told him the truth, and then fear took the
place of greed. There was no knowing what Bruslart might say. The
temper of the Convention was uncertain. He might be arrested too, or
perchance plundered of his gains. For a few moments he was doubtful
whether it would be safe to go home, and then, driven by that desperate
desire to know the worst which so often makes a coward seem courageous,
he hastened in the direction of the Rue Charonne, and was in his study
when the officers of the Convention arrived to remove Jeanne St. Clair.
Legrand had communicated with the authorities, but somewhat vaguely. He
declared that it was evident that he had been deceived, that the
ci-devant aristocrat ought never to have been placed under his care, but
he had not definitely stated an opinion that the American, Richard
Barrington, was responsible. It was difficult for Legrand to make a
straightforward statement at any time, and that he had not done so on
this occasion might prove useful now that Lucien Bruslart was arrested.
He was therefore prepared to wriggle out of his awkward position