was allowed to go on board again, and
spied the missing umbrella on the deck. When she returned, the train
had been moved higher up, and she could not distinguish the carriage
anywhere. The guard was already beginning to wave the signal, and
Barbara felt she was a lost passenger, when a dark, stout little man
dashed up to her and seized her by the arm.

"Par ici, par ici," he cried, "votre maman vous attend, mademoiselle,"
and they flew down the platform with the guard shouting warnings behind
them. They were barely in time, and Barbara sank panting into her seat.

"Fancy!" Aunt Anne cried indignantly--"fancy getting lost like that!
It just shows that you are not fit to look after children when you
cannot manage an umbrella!"

Barbara was too breathless to reply and too much amused, perhaps,
really to mind. The country was pretty enough, but it soon began to
grow dusk, and they wondered when they would arrive in Paris. The
train was due at 7.30, but there did not seem to be the least chance of
getting in at that hour, for, late as they already were, they continued
to lose time on the way. The little Frenchman was their only
companion, and he did not seem to know much English.

However, between his shreds of that language and Barbara's scanty
French she managed to find out that they would not arrive in Paris
until midnight. Aunt Anne expressed her annoyance in no measured
terms, but he merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled, until she
collapsed into a corner speechless with disgust. He left them at
Rouen, and Barbara, watching her aunt sleeping in a corner, wondered
what they would do when they finally did arrive at the station. But,
as soon as the lights of the _Gare de Lazare_ showed through the
darkness, Miss Britton began to bestir herself, and, when the train
stopped, marched boldly out of the carriage as if she had been in Paris
dozens of times.

In a little while they were seated in a _fiacre_, going along through
brightly-lighted streets, feeling very satisfied that they were
actually nearing their destination. But their content did not last
long, for soon leaving the lighted thoroughfares, they turned into a
dark road with high walls on either side, and just a lamp now and then.
It really seemed rather lonely, and they both began to feel
uncomfortable and to wonder if they were being taken to the wrong
place. Stories of mysterious disappearances began to flit through
Barbara's brain, and she s