y of ordering you
to be shot--Die meliora. Think over all I have thus frankly said.
Give me your answer within forty-eight hours; and meanwhile hold no
communication with my ward. I have the honour to wish you good-day."

CHAPTER XI.

The short grim day was closing when Gustave, quitting Julie's apartment,
again found himself in the streets. His thoughts were troubled and
confused. He was the more affected by Julie's impassioned love for
him, by the contrast with Isaura's words and manner in their recent
interview. His own ancient fancy for the "Ondine of Paris" became
revived by the difficulties between their ancient intercourse which her
unexpected scruples and De Mauleon's guardianship interposed. A
witty writer thus defines une passion, "une caprice inflamme par des
obstacles." In the ordinary times of peace, Gustave, handsome, aspiring
to reputable position in the beau monde, would not have admitted any
considerations to compromise his station by marriage with a fagurante.
But now the wild political doctrines he had embraced separated his
ambition from that beau monde, and combined it with ascendancy over the
revolutionists of the populace--a direction which he must abandon if
he continued his suit to Isaura. Then, too, the immediate possession of
Julie's dot was not without temptation to a man who was so fond of his
personal comforts, and who did not see where to turn for a dinner, if,
obedient to Isaura's "prejudices," he abandoned his profits as a writer
in the revolutionary press. The inducements for withdrawal from the
cause he had espoused, held out to him with so haughty a coldness by
De Mauleon, were not wholly without force, though they irritated his
self-esteem. He was dimly aware of the Vicomte's masculine talents
for public life; and the high reputation he had already acquired
among military authorities, and even among experienced and thoughtful
civilians, had weight upon Gustave's impressionable temperament. But
though De Mauleon's implied advice here coincided in much with the
tacit compact he had made with Isaura, it alienated him more from Isaura
herself, for Isaura did not bring to him the fortune which would enable
him to suspend his lucubrations, watch the turn of events, and live at
ease in the meanwhile; and the dot to be received with De Mauleon's ward
had those advantages.

While thus meditating Gustave turned into one of the cantines still
open, to brighten his intellect with a peti