ut on
our wings at a moment's notice."

"It belongs to a political organization, you say?"

"Have no qualms--it is a few drops out of a reptilian fund! No one can
claim what was handed over to me without witnesses, and no receipt
demanded. I make no secret: I am offering for your love the price of my
honor. Only let us flee to a distance for a while. The money could not
be claimed of me in a public court, but they might punish me with an
assassin's bullet."

"And for me, for my happiness, you would do this? I cannot doubt you any
longer, if ever I did. Enough, Gratian, I will go to the world's end
with you!"

CHAPTER XI.

A SPRAT AND THE WHALE.

A few moments were enough for the two to enter the chateau again, where
their absence had begun to arouse curiosity, though the guests were too
well bred to make general remarks. With the cue that these "slow," tame
gatherings were but the cloak to more important conclaves, Cesarine
studied them as never before. It was clear. Here and there were groups
which did not waste a word on the accent of Mademoiselle Delaporte, the
early history of Aimee Derclee, or the latest episode in the stage and
boudoir history of "the Beauty who is also the Stupid Beast." For a
certainty, conspiracy went on here at the gates of the capital; perhaps
from the pretty belvedere, where the large telescope was mounted for
lovers to see Venus, the sons of Mars ascertained where the batteries of
siege guns should be planted to shell Parisian palaces and forts.

Two of a trade never agree, says the wisdom of our ancestors, and from
that time Cesarine detested Gratian. If he so easily betrayed his
friends, countrymen and employers for her, what might he not do as
regards her when she was older and her bloom vanished? Better not place
herself under his thumb and be cast off, in some remote, barbarous
region, when the caprice had worn out. But the money! What was this
political league and its aims to her? For her limited education, that of
a refined and expensive toy, she was ignorant of the laws and
regulations governing even herself, and these laws were too subtly
interwoven and inexorable for man alone to have formed them. She did not
suspect the great reasons of the State in setting them in motion to
accomplish collective ends and destinies, whether they wrought good or
evil to individuals. Enough that they were necessary for a dynasty or a
class; but in all cases, the rulers knew why the