himself had spoken of just now.

"You are anxious about Armand, Percy?" asked Ffoulkes softly.

"Yes. He should have trusted me, as I had trusted him. He missed me at
the Villette gate on Friday, and without a thought left me--left us all
in the lurch; he threw himself into the lion's jaws, thinking that he
could help the girl he loved. I knew that I could save her. She is in
comparative safety even now. The old woman, Madame Belhomme, had been
freely released the day after her arrest, but Jeanne Lange is still in
the house in the Rue de Charonne. You know it, Ffoulkes. I got her there
early this morning. It was easy for me, of course: 'Hola, Dupont!
my boots, Dupont!' 'One moment, citizen, my daughter--' 'Curse thy
daughter, bring me my boots!' and Jeanne Lange walked out of the Temple
prison her hand in that of that lout Dupont."

"But Armand does not know that she is in the Rue de Charonne?"

"No. I have not seen him since that early morning on Saturday when he
came to tell me that she had been arrested. Having sworn that he would
obey me, he went to meet you and Tony at La Villette, but returned to
Paris a few hours later, and drew the undivided attention of all the
committees on Jeanne Lange by his senseless, foolish inquiries. But
for his action throughout the whole of yesterday I could have smuggled
Jeanne out of Paris, got her to join you at Villette, or Hastings in St.
Germain. But the barriers were being closely watched for her, and I had
the Dauphin to think of. She is in comparative safety; the people in
the Rue de Charonne are friendly for the moment; but for how long? Who
knows? I must look after her of course. And Armand! Poor old Armand! The
lion's jaws have snapped over him, and they hold him tight. Chauvelin
and his gang are using him as a decoy to trap me, of course. All that
had not happened if Armand had trusted me."

He sighed a quick sigh of impatience, almost of regret. Ffoulkes was the
one man who could guess the bitter disappointment that this had meant.
Percy had longed to be back in England soon, back to Marguerite, to a
few days of unalloyed happiness and a few days of peace.

Now Armand's actions had retarded all that; they were a deliberate bar
to the future as it had been mapped out by a man who foresaw everything,
who was prepared for every eventuality.

In this case, too, he had been prepared, but not for the want of trust
which had brought on disobedience akin to disloyalty. Tha