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 went on, "to invent that plausible excuse on the spur of the moment, for we must have frightened him, but not out of his wits, unfortunately."

"If he gets away I'll never forgive myself," Sonia hotly exclaimed.

"Then you never will, for he has everything in his favor. The pilgrimage—it's the easiest thing in the world to get away with a change of clothes, or even without, for that matter, in this press of the visitors. To-morrow's jam will be bigger than ever. There are fifty trains a day to and from Auray. Every road is choked with vehicles. He'd be a fool if he were caught, and we know he isn't that. Oh, why isn't the doctor here?"

"Madelaine, Madelaine!" the countess's voice screamed suddenly from the next room.

"Thank Heaven!" Victoria muttered, "the mother's all right. Perhaps she knows what is best to be done. Go and see. Bring her in here as soon as you dare—yet, no—the shock, right after the chloroform—I don't know what to say. Oh, where is the doctor?"

As if in answer to her prayer the sound of 56