urned her companion; "I answer for the result. Have I not
chosen you from thirty? Go; but be wary of the Prince. I cannot think
what cursed accident has brought him here to-night. As if there were not
a dozen balls in Paris better worth his notice than this riot of
students and counter-jumpers! See him where he sits, more like a
reigning Emperor at home than a Prince upon his holidays!"

Silas was again lucky. He observed a person of rather a full build,
strikingly handsome, and of a very stately and courteous demeanour,
seated at table with another handsome young man, several years his
junior, who addressed him with conspicuous deference. The name of Prince
struck gratefully on Silas's Republican hearing, and the aspect of the
person to whom that name was applied exercised its usual charm upon his
mind. He left Madame Zephyrine and her Englishman to take care of each
other, and threading his way through the assembly, approached the table
which the Prince and his confidant had honoured with their choice.

"I tell you, Geraldine," the former was saying, "the action is madness.
Yourself (I am glad to remember it) chose your brother for this perilous
service, and you are bound in duty to have a guard upon his conduct. He
has consented to delay so many days in Paris; that was already an
imprudence, considering the character of the man he has to deal with;
but now, when he is within eight-and-forty hours of his departure, when
he is within two or three days of the decisive trial, I ask you, is this
a place for him to spend his time? He should be in a gallery at
practice; he should be sleeping long hours and taking moderate exercise
on foot; he should be on a rigorous diet, without white wines or brandy.
Does the dog imagine we are all playing comedy? The thing is deadly
earnest, Geraldine."

"I know the lad too well to interfere," replied Colonel Geraldine, "and
well enough not to be alarmed. He is more cautious than you fancy, and
of an indomitable spirit. If it had been a woman I should not say so
much, but I trust the President to him and the two valets without an
instant's apprehension."

"I am gratified to hear you say so," replied the Prince; "but my mind is
not at rest. These servants are well-trained spies, and already has not
this miscreant succeeded three times in eluding their observation and
spending several hours on each in private, and most likely dangerous,
affairs? An amateur might have lost him by acciden