, but it is really
I that was the fool, and it vexed me too, when you got everyone down
on you. But now ... it is really too unjust! That a lot of men who are
not fit to tie your shoe ... that they should strike you! Let me kiss
your poor muddy face!"

It was so sweet to find each other again!--When she had had a good cry
on Clerambault's neck, she helped him to dress, then she bathed his
cheek with arnica, and carried off his clothes to brush them. At table
her eyes dwelt on him with the old affectionate care, while he tried
to calm her fears by talking of familiar things. To be alone together
without the children took them back to the old days, the early times
of their marriage. And the memory had a sad, quiet sweetness--as the
evening angelus spreads through the growing gloom a last softened
glory from the angelus of noon.

About ten o'clock the bell rang, and Moreau came in with his friend
Gillot. They had read the evening papers which gave an account of the
incident--from their point of view; some spoke of the "spontaneous"
indignation of the crowd and approved of the rebuke inflicted by
popular contempt. Others, and they were the more serious sheets,
deprecated lynch law in the public streets, as a matter of principle,
but blamed the weakness of the authorities, who were afraid to throw
light on all the facts.

It was not impossible that this mild criticism of the government was
inspired by the government itself; for politicians know how to manage
so that their hand may be forced, when they have an end in view of
which they are not exactly proud. The arrest of Clerambault seemed
imminent, and Moreau and his comrade were very uneasy; but Clerambault
signed to them to say nothing before his wife, and after a few words
on the event of the day, which they treated rather lightly, he took
them both into his study and asked them to tell him plainly what was
the matter.

They showed him a vicious article in the nationalist paper which had
been active against Clerambault for weeks, and which was so encouraged
by the manifestation of the day that it called on all its friends to
renew the attack the next morning. Moreau and Gillot foresaw that
there would be trouble when Clerambault went to the Palais, and they
had come to beg him to stay in the house. Knowing his timidity, they
thought that there would be no difficulty in persuading him to this,
but just as it had been the day Moreau had found him disputing in the
str