ulation?

When I refused his arm, he smiled comically, and raised his shoulders in
deprecation.

"You forget your dignity, monsieur," I said presently as we walked on,
Gabord meeting us and lighting us through the passages; "you voted me a
villain, a spy, at my trial!"

"Technically and publicly, you are a spy, a vulgar criminal," he
replied; "privately, you are a foolish, blundering gentleman."

"A soldier, also, you will admit, who keeps his compact with his enemy."

"Otherwise we should not breakfast together this morning," he answered.
"What difference would it make to this government if our private matter
had been dragged in? Technically, you still would have been the spy. But
I will say this, monsieur, to me you are a man better worth torture than
death."

"Do you ever stop to think of how this may end for you?" I asked
quietly.

He seemed pleased with the question. "I have thought it might be
interesting," he answered; "else, as I said, you should long ago have
left this naughty world. Is it in your mind that we shall cross swords
one day?"

"I feel it in my bones," said I, "that I shall kill you."

At that moment we stood at the entrance to the citadel, where a good
pair of horses and a sleigh awaited us. We got in, the robes were piled
around us, and the horses started off at a long trot. I was muffled to
the ears, but I could see how white and beautiful was the world, how the
frost glistened in the trees, how the balsams were weighted down with
snow, and how snug the chateaux looked with the smoke curling up from
their hunched chimneys.

Presently Doltaire replied to my last remark. "Conviction is the
executioner of the stupid," said he. "When a man is not great enough to
let change and chance guide him, he gets convictions, and dies a fool."

"Conviction has made men and nations strong," I rejoined.

"Has made men and nations asses," he retorted. "The Mohammmedan has
conviction, so has the Christian: they die fighting each other, and the
philosopher sits by and laughs. Expediency, monsieur, expediency is the
real wisdom, the true master of this world. Expediency saved your life
to-day; conviction would have sent you to a starry home."

As he spoke a thought came in on me. Here we were in the open world,
travelling together, without a guard of any kind. Was it not possible to
make a dash for freedom? The idea was put away from me, and yet it was a
fresh accent of Doltaire's character that he te