ibly anxious about you, Mary," he said, after the first
greeting.

"There was no occasion for your being so," she replied, "everything is
pefectly quiet here, though from what they say there may be fighting any
day, but if there is it will be outside the walls and will not affect us
here."

"I don't think there will be much fighting," he said; "if the troops
fraternize with the Communists there's an end of the business, all
France will join them, and we shall have the Reign of Terror over again,
though they will not venture upon any excesses here in Paris, for,
fortunately, the Germans are still within gunshot, and they would have
the hearty approval of all Europe in marching in here, and stamping the
whole thing out. If the troops, on the other hand, prove faithful, I
feel sure, from what I saw of the Belleville battalions, that there will
be very little fighting outside the walls. They may defend Paris for a
time, and perhaps bravely, for they will know they are fighting with
ropes round their necks, and the veriest cur will fight when cornered.
Your people here are not thinking of leaving, I hope?"

"No, and they could not now if they wanted; the Commune has put a stop
to emigration, and though the trains still run once or twice a day, they
go out as empty as they come in. Have you got through your business?"
she asked, with a shade of anxiety.

"Yes, dear, and most satisfactorily; everything has been arranged in the
happiest way. I unexpectedly obtained proofs that the sale of Fairclose
was altogether irregular, and indeed, invalid. I have seen your father,
who at once, upon my laying the proofs before him, recognized the
position. Our arrangement has been a perfectly amicable one. He is going
to retire altogether from business, and will probably take up his
residence at some seaside place where there is a bracing climate. The
doctor recommends Scarborough, for I may tell you that he has had a
slight stroke of apoplexy, and is eager himself for rest and quiet.
Fairclose and the estate comes back to me, nominally as your dowry, and
with the exception that there is a mortgage on it for L20,000, I shall
be exactly in the same position that I was on the day my father died. I
may say that your mother and the girls are delighted with the
arrangement, for, somehow, they have not been received as cordially as
they had expected in the county--owing of course to a foolish prejudice
arising from your father's connection wi