of Euclid with the
main clauses omitted."

"I am sorry, Felix, but I cannot explain myself further. You came to
Delgratz with me; will you return with me to Paris? If not, will you at
least promise to help me to get away and keep secret the fact that I am
going?"

Felix grew round eyed with amazement; but he managed to control his
tongue. "You are asking a good deal, dear," he said. "Do you know what
you are doing? Do you realize what your action will mean to Alec? What
has happened? Some lover's tiff. That is unlike you, Joan. If you run
off in this fashion, you will be trying most deliberately to break poor
Alec's heart."

Joan uttered a queer little choking sob, yet recovered her self control
with a rapidity that disconcerted Felix far more than she imagined at
the moment.

"He will suffer, I know," she murmured, "and it does not console me to
feel that in the end I shall suffer far more; but I am going, Felix,
whatsoever the cost, no matter whose heart may be broken. Heaven help
me! I must go, and I look to you for assistance. Oh, my friend, my
friend! I have only you in all the world. Do not desert me in my need!"

She had never before seen Felix really angry; but even in the extremity
of her distress she could not fail to note a strange glitter in the gray
eyes now fixed on her in a fiery underlook. The little man was deeply
moved; for once in his life he did not care how much he showed his
resentment.

"_Saperlotte!_" he growled. "What has come to you? Is it you who speak,
or the devil? You are possessed of a fiend, Joan, a fiend that is
tempting you to do this wrong!"

Joan rose, pale faced and resolute. Despite the flood of rage and
despair that surged in Poluski's quivering frame, she reminded him of a
glimpse he caught of her in that last desperate moment when the door of
the hotel was battered open by the insurgents and her mind was already
fixed on death as a blessed relief from the horror of life.

"I only ask you to believe in my unalterable purpose," she said with a
calmness that stupefied him. "If no other means presents itself, I
should wander out of the palace in the darkness and endeavor to reach
Austria by the ferry across the Danube. I believe there are difficulties
for the stranger if one goes that way; but again I throw myself on your
mercy, Felix, and appeal to you for guidance and help. This is my worst
hour. If you fail me now, I shall indeed be wretched."

Felix leaned against an