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274 trouble to see, but gave orders that he should be kept in safe custody, and then carried the permit to Gerard to consult with him as to making use of it.

Lucette first hurried to Denys, whom she found sufficiently recovered to have been able to leave his bed, and having told him all that had occurred at the Castle she went to Gabrielle.

"How calm and strong you are, Gabrielle," she said, when the first greetings had been exchanged. "And I am in a perfect fever of restlessness."

"We can do nothing yet but wait, Lucette."

"But what will happen? Can't we do something? Tell me everything that has happened. I am dying to know everything—everything."

Gabrielle told her as shortly as she could what had occurred in the cell and afterwards in the futile attempt to escape from the city, and then the return to Malincourt.

"They think you are all at Crevasse."

"So M. Pascal brought us word when he told us to expect you. I am so glad you have escaped, and to have you with me again. Now tell me how you managed it."

Lucette made her recital very brief indeed, saying little or nothing of the means she had employed to cozen the two men.

"They must have been mad indeed to think you would betray me," said Gabrielle.

"They were thinking most of the thousand crowns, and when a man's head is set money-wards, he is most easily blinded to other things."

"What a philosopher you are, Lucette—about men."

"And so M. Gerard is M. Gerard still, Gabrielle, but not de Cobalt," said Lucette, changing the subject. "How glad and proud you must feel."

"If only this danger were over; but the suspense is racking," replied Gabrielle, with a sigh. "Any hour,