and wasted figure in her arms. "_Mon Dieu!_" she cried, as for
the first time she heard of what he had done. For only to her was
confession of heroic conduct possible. "And I--I would have kept you
from God's service. I am proud of you as never before." All the long
afternoon they talked, and Mr. Wynne, just come back, and Darthea would
have him to stay for a few days.

At bedtime, as they sat alone, Hugh said to his wife, "I was sure of
that young man."

"Is he not a little like you?" asked Darthea.

"Nonsense!" he cried. "Do you think every good man like me? I grieve
that I was absent."

"And I do not."

XV

The weeks before Mrs. Swanwick's household returned to the city were for
De Courval of the happiest. He was gathering again his former strength
in the matchless weather of our late autumnal days. To take advantage of
the re-awakened commerce and to return to work was, as Wynne urged,
unwise for a month or more. The American politics of that stormy time
were to the young noble of small moment, and the Terror, proclaimed in
France in September on Barras's motion, followed by the queen's death,
made all hope of change in his own land for the present out of the
question.

With the passing of the plague, Genet and his staff had come back; but
for Rene to think of what he eagerly desired was only to be reminded of
his own physical feebleness.

Meanwhile Genet's insolent demands went on, and the insulted cabinet was
soon about to ask for his recall, when, as Schmidt hoped, Carteaux would
also leave the country. The enthusiasm for the French republic was at
first in no wise lessened by Genet's conduct, although his threat to
appeal to the country against Washington called out at last a storm of
indignation which no one of the minister's violations of law and of the
courtesies of life had yet occasioned. At first it was held to be an
invention of "black-hearted Anglican aristocrats," but when it came out
in print, Genet was at once alarmed at the mischief he had made. He had
seriously injured his Republican allies,--in fact, nearly ruined the
party, said Madison,--for at no time in our history was Washington more
venerated. The Democratic leaders begged men not to blame the newly
founded republic, "so gloriously cemented with the blood of
aristocrats," for the language of its insane envoy. The Federalists
would have been entirely pleased, save that neither England nor France
was dealing wisely with our c