iantess opened
it, but barred all passage.

"Have you the money?" she asked.

"Yes, yes--give me the key!"

Talizac threw down a pocketbook, and the giantess, with most exaggerated
respect, pointed to the stairs.

As soon as Talizac had left the lower floor, she turned to Robeccal.

"And now we will make ourselves scarce!"

Hardly had the door closed on their retreating forms than an angry cry
rang through the house. Talizac rushed from Francine's room. The girl
had disappeared.

CHAPTER XXXII.

SURPRISES.

By what miracle had Francine vanished? How could she with her frail
strength escape from that room, situated as we have said on the second
floor of this house, and from the garden surrounded on all sides by
walls which no man could climb.

When these wretches gave Francine the narcotic, they in their eagerness
gave her too much, and the girl was utterly prostrated. She lay for an
hour motionless while her jailers played cards and drank; and then her
pulse began to flutter and nervous contractions shook her frail form,
still she did not open her eyes. Her brain was over-excited. Suddenly
she started up with eyes wide open, but eyes that saw not. She moved
slowly and noiselessly. Did she reason? Not in the least. Instinct was
her only guide.

Have you ever when half asleep heard the same words repeated over and
over again? In Francine's brain the words "too late! too late!" were
repeated with the regularity of a pendulum. The old woman had struck a
cruel blow. The girl had believed for a few moments that she was
dishonored and this thought now haunted her vaguely. She placed her feet
on the floor, then glided toward the door. She tried it and found it
locked. She turned to the window; she slowly and gently opened the
blinds, and then stepped upon the cornice outside; then she feels her
way down to another projection where she places one foot and then the
other until she finds herself on the ground. She then glides on until
she reaches the wall.

Ah! child, it is useless for you to try! Not so! The clinging vines form
a rope-ladder for her light weight. She reaches the top of the wall, and
easily descends on the other side. She is saved! But she does not know
this, and her pale lips murmur,

"Too late! Too late!"

Where is she going? Ah! she knows not. She feels no fatigue, but goes on
and on. She has crossed the outer Boulevard, and moves swiftly on
through the now crowded streets, where no