and finally
succeeded in yanking him around. The broad back of the giant being
turned to her, our little sparrow of a Henriette noiselessly
departed--to the evident disappointment of the big man who looked yet
again and found her place empty!

The big man had run across Chevalier de Vaudrey also, and the two had
struck up a friendship. Moved by the pitiful sight of a starveling
crowd gazing into a bakery, Maurice had rushed in and bought an armful
of loaves which he distributed, adding gold louis for the wretched
mothers of families. The pock-marked one had been a spectator. He
stopped the Chevalier, shook his hand warmly, and remarked: "If more
of the aristocrats were like _you_, things would be different!"

* * * * *

From these scenes of low life, let the reader pass for a few moments
to the Salon de la Paix at Versailles, where King Louis XVI received
petitioners.

We in America who have no awe of royalty perceive that the luckless
King was simply a square peg in a round hole. He loved locksmithy,
hunting, and home; would have been a successful inventor, pioneer, or
bourgeois parent. In the chair of State, on this day of petitions, his
head and hand busied themselves with a wonderful new doorlock he had
devised.

"Sire," said the suppliant de Linieres, "in the matter of the grand
alliance betwixt my nephew Chevalier de Vaudrey and your ward
Princesse de Acquitaine--"

The monarch nodded absentmindedly.

"Oh, yes, yes! Of course. As you say--" With a courtly wave of the
hand, the monarch indicated the waiting heiress on his right. She
curtsied low in acceptance of the royal command.

"Let the young man marry her, and accept a place in my royal
entourage--But now that this little matter is settled," continued the
King with a return to his former animation, "I invite you to examine
my latest invention, an unpickable lock, which I have here!"

The grave comedy of eulogy on the royal locksmithing was played by the
delighted suppliant according to all the rules.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HONOR OF THE FAMILY

Daily the young Chevalier developed a warmer interest in the sweet and
pure young girl at the faubourg lodgings. Always his visits brought a
little delicious heart-flutter to Henriette, though not unmixed with
mourning o'er lost sister. And as a result of these idyllic meetings,
ambitious plans appeared to him abhorrent.

About this time the Countess de Lin