ith interest at the long, low dining-room, whose walls
bore tokens of the visits of so many famous men and women, and at whose
table there usually gathered folk from so many different nations.

"There is an Englishman!" she said eagerly to Mademoiselle Therese, for
it seemed quite a long time since she had seen one of her countrymen so
near.

"But, yes, of course," mademoiselle answered, shrugging her shoulders.
"What did you expect? They go everywhere," and she turned her
attention to her plate. "One must be fortified by a good meal," she
said in a solemn whisper to Barbara as they rose, "to prepare one for
the blood-curdling tales we are about to hear while seeing over the
Abbaye."

And though the girl allowed something for exaggeration, it was quite
true that, after hearing the stories, and seeing the pictures of those
who had perished in the dungeons, she felt very eerie when being taken
through them. In the damp darkness she seemed to realise the terror
that imprisonment there must have held, and she thought she could
almost hear the moans of the victims and the scraping of the rats, who
were waiting--for the end.

"Oh!" she cried, drawing a long breath when they once more emerged into
the open air. "You seem hardly able to breathe down there even for a
little while--and for years----" She shuddered. "How could they bear
it?"

"One learns to bear everything in this life," Mademoiselle Therese
replied sententiously, shaking her head and looking as if she knew what
it was to suffer acutely. "One is set on earth to learn to 'suffer and
grow strong,' as one of your English poets says."

Barbara turned away impatiently, and felt she could gladly have shaken
her companion.

"One wants to come to a place like this with nice companions or alone,"
she thought, and it was this feeling that drove her out on to the
ramparts that evening after dinner. She was feeling happy at having
successfully escaped from the noisy room downstairs, and thankful to
the game of cards that had beguiled Mademoiselle Therese's attention
from her, when she heard footsteps close beside her, and, turning
round, saw Jean Dubois.

"Whatever do you want here?" she said a little irritably; then, hearing
his humble answer that he had just come to enjoy the view, felt ashamed
of herself, and tried to be pleasant.

"Do you know," she said, suddenly determining to share an idea with him
to make up for her former rudeness, "we have seen M