n. No man can stand in the way of his plans.'

'Lucien! 'The name was like a lightning flash upon a dark night. I had
heard of the vagaries of a woman's love, but was it possible that this
spirited woman loved that poor creature whom I had seen grovelling last
night in a frenzy of fear? But now I remembered also where I had seen
the name Sibylle. It was upon the fly-leaf of his book. 'Lucien, from
Sibylle,' was the inscription. I recalled also that my uncle had said
something to him about his aspirations.

'Lucien is hot-headed, and easily carried away,' said she. 'My father
has seen a great deal of him lately. They sit for hours in his room,
and Lucien will say nothing of what passes between them. I fear that
there is something going forward which may lead to evil. Lucien is a
student rather than a man of the world, but he has strong opinions about
politics.'

I was at my wit's ends what to do, whether to be silent, or to tell her
of the terrible position in which her lover was placed; but, even as I
hesitated, she, with the quick intuition of a woman, read the doubts
which were in my mind.

'You know something of him,' she cried. 'I understood that he had gone
to Paris. For God's sake tell me what you know about him!'

'His name is Lesage?'

'Yes, yes. Lucien Lesage.'

'I have--I have seen him,' I stammered.

'You have seen him! And you only arrived in France last night.
Where did you see him? What has happened to him?' She gripped me by the
wrist in her anxiety.

It was cruel to tell her, and yet it seemed more cruel still to keep
silent. I looked round in my bewilderment, and there was my uncle
himself coming along over the close-cropped green lawn. By his side,
with a merry clashing of steel and jingling of spurs, there walked a
handsome young hussar--the same to whom the charge of the prisoner had
been committed upon the night before. Sibylle never hesitated for an
instant, but, with a set face and blazing eyes, she swept towards them.

'Father,' said she, 'what have you done with Lucien?'

I saw his impassive face wince for a moment before the passionate hatred
and contempt which he read in her eyes. 'We will discuss this at some
future time,' said he.

'I will know here and now,' she cried. 'What have you done with
Lucien?'

'Gentlemen,' said he, turning to the young hussar and me,' I am sorry
that we should intrude our little domestic differences upon your
attention. You w