itly measured from henceforth."

One soft night in Prairial, while over the prison yard the moon riding
high in a pale sky showed her two silver horns, the ex-financier, who,
as his way was, sat reading Lucretius on a step of the stone stairs,
heard a voice call him, a woman's voice, a delightful voice, which he
did not know. He went down into the court and saw behind the railing a
form which he recognized as little as he did the voice, but which
reminded him, in its half-seen fascinating outlines, of all the women he
had loved. A flood of silvery blue moonlight fell on it. Next instant
Brotteaux recognized the pretty actress of the Rue Feydeau, Rose
Thevenin.

"You here, my child! It is a joy to see you, but it stabs my heart.
Since when have you been here, and why?"

"Since yesterday,"--and she added very low:

"I have been denounced as a Royalist. They accuse me of conspiring to
set free the Queen. Knowing you were here, I tried at once to see you.
Listen to me, dear friend ... you will let me call you so?... I know
people in power; I have sympathizers, I am sure of it, on the Committee
of Public Safety itself. I will set my friends to work; they will
deliver me, and _I_ will deliver you."

But Brotteaux in a voice that took on an accent of urgency:

"By everything you hold dear, my child, do nothing of the sort! Do not
write, do not petition; ask nothing of anybody, I conjure you, let
yourself be forgotten."

As she appeared unconvinced by what he said, he went on more
beseechingly still:

"Not a word, Rose, let them forget you; there lies safety. Anything your
friends might attempt would only hasten your undoing. Time is
everything; only a short delay, a very short one, I hope, is needed to
save you.... Above all, never try to melt the judges, the jurors, a
Gamelin. They are not men, they are things; there is no arguing with
things. Let them forget you; if you take my advice, sweetheart, I shall
die happy, happy to have saved your life."

She answered:

"I will do as you say.... Never talk of dying...."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"My life is ended, my child. Do you live and be happy."

She took his hands and laid them on her bosom:

"Hear what I say, dear friend.... I have only seen you once for a day,
and yet you are not indifferent to me. And if what I am going to tell
you can renew your attachment to life, oh! believe my promise,--I will
be for you ... whatever you shall wish me to be."

An