even
o'clock tomorrow."

"I will be there, Arnold." Cuthbert walked slowly back to Passy. He was
shocked at the dismal shipwreck, of what had seemed a bright and
pleasant future, of the man of whom he had seen so much for upwards of a
year. Dampierre's life had seemed to offer a fairer chance of happiness
and prosperity than that of any other of the students at Monsieur
Goude's. He had an estate amply sufficient to live upon in comfort, and
even affluence; and he had artistic tastes that would save him from
becoming, like many southern planters, a mere lounger through life. His
fatal love for Minette had caused him to throw himself into this
insurrection, and to take so prominent a part in it that the chance of
his life being spared, did he fall into the hands of the troops, was
small indeed; even did he succeed in escaping with Minette his chances
of happiness in the future seemed to Cuthbert to be faint indeed. With
her passionate impulses she would speedily weary of the tranquil and
easy life on a southern plantation, and, with her, to weary was to seek
change, and however that change might come about, it would bring no
happiness to her husband.

"I am going to see your rival married to-morrow," he said to Mary.

"What, the model? Don't call her my rival, Cuthbert, it makes me ashamed
of myself, even to think that I should have suspected you of caring for
that woman we saw on horseback the other day."

"Then we will call her your supposed rival, Mary; yes, she is going to
be married to Arnold Dampierre, to-morrow."

"What a time to choose for it," she said, with a shudder. "In a few days
Paris will be deluged with blood, for the Commune boasts that every
street is mined."

"We need not believe all that, Mary; no doubt the principal streets have
been mined, but the Commune have made such a boast of the fact, that you
may be sure the French generals will avoid the great thoroughfares as
much as possible, and will turn the barricades by advancing along the
narrow streets and lanes; besides, it is one thing to dig mines and
charge them, and quite another thing to explode them at the right moment
in the midst of a desperate fight. However, I agree with you that it is
a dismal business, but Arnold explained to me that he did it because he
and Minette might have to fly together, or, that if he fell, she might
inherit his property. He did not seem to foresee that she too might
fall, which is, to my mind as likely as h