ke me straight
to a house in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois. Oh! I was infinitely
grateful to the poor creature who had helped me to get out of that awful
prison, and I would gladly have given him some money, for I am sure he
was very poor; but I had none by me. He told me that I should be quite
safe in the house in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and begged me to
wait there patiently for a few days until I heard from one who had my
welfare at heart, and who would further arrange for my safety."

Marguerite had listened silently to this narrative so naively told by
this child, who obviously had no idea to whom she owed her freedom and
her life. While the girl talked, her mind could follow with unspeakable
pride and happiness every phase of that scene in the early dawn, when
that mysterious, ragged man-of-all-work, unbeknown even to the woman
whom he was saving, risked his own noble life for the sake of her whom
his friend and comrade loved.

"And did you never see again the kind man to whom you owe your life?"
she asked.

"No!" replied Jeanne. "I never saw him since; but when I arrived at
the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois I was told by the good people who took
charge of me that the ragged man-of-all-work had been none other than
the mysterious Englishman whom Armand reveres, he whom they call the
Scarlet Pimpernel."

"But you did not stay very long in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois, did
you?"

"No. Only three days. The third day I received a communique from
the Committee of General Security, together with an unconditional
certificate of safety. It meant that I was free--quite free. Oh! I could
scarcely believe it. I laughed and I cried until the people in the house
thought that I had gone mad. The past few days had been such a horrible
nightmare."

"And then you saw Armand again?"

"Yes. They told him that I was free. And he came here to see me. He
often comes; he will be here anon."

"But are you not afraid on his account and your own? He is--he must be
still--'suspect'; a well-known adherent of the Scarlet Pimpernel, he
would be safer out of Paris."

"No! oh, no! Armand is in no danger. He, too, has an unconditional
certificate of safety."

"An unconditional certificate of safety?" asked Marguerite, whilst a
deep frown of grave puzzlement appeared between her brows. "What does
that mean?

"It means that he is free to come and go as he likes; that neither he
nor I have anything to fear from Heron and h