, trusting,
with the blind faith of a fatalist, that these would somehow fall into
line when the hour came. If they failed, as was likely, I determined
to shift them about in any way possible as each fresh emergency arose.
I realized how small a part any preliminary survey holds in such an
enterprise as now fronted me, an enterprise to be worked out amid
darkness and grave personal peril, where any bungling act or false move
might overturn everything in an instant; yet it is always well--or at
least so I have found it--to trace some outline of procedure, rather
than trust wholly to the intuitions of the moment. God's aid seems
usually granted to those doing most for themselves.

I felt little confidence by the time Alphonse returned, yet my firm
determination to make the effort had in no way abated. Indeed, had
failure been an absolute certainty I should have gone forward exactly
the same, for I was bound to it by my pledge to Eloise de Noyan. I
have reason to suppose dogged determination a part of my nature, but
then something far more compelling than this inherited tendency drove
me irresistibly forward to my fate. This is no story of the rescue of
a prisoner of war, but rather of how love impelled an ordinary man to
the accomplishment of deeds which seemed impossible.

It was evening, already quite dark, it fortunately proving a night of
cloud and threatened storm, when I ventured to steal into the little
cottage on the Rue Dumaine, and found there, even as I had left them,
Madame de Noyan and the _pere_ awaiting me. How anxious a day she had
been compelled to pass since the hour of my departure was plainly
imprinted upon her beautiful face, gently touched by the softened light
from a shaded candle near which she rested; nor was the naturally pale,
emaciated countenance of her spiritual adviser entirely free from
outward marks of care impressed upon it by his patient vigil.

I recall still, a pang tugging at my old heart, with what unspeakable
gentleness Eloise came forward, holding forth both white hands in
greeting, while unrestrained tears glistened upon the long lashes
partly veiling the eager glow of soft eyes searching my face. She
uttered never a word of questioning relative to the result of my
mission; merely stood there silent, her warm hands in mine, her gaze
fastened upon me, as if within my eyes she sought to read everything
unasked. Perhaps she did, yet to me it seemed the perfect abandon of
t