dropped upon her knees before him, and, joining her hands:

"I beseech you, father," she begged.

He shuddered all over. An unspeakable expression of suffering and
anguish contracted his features; and, speaking in a scarcely
intelligible voice:

"Ah! you are cruelly protracting my agony," he stammered. "What
do you ask of me?"

"You must fly," declared M. Desclavettes.

"Which way? How? Do you not think that every precaution has been
taken, that every issue is closely watched?"

Maxence interrupted him with a gesture:

"The windows in sister's room, father," said he, "open upon the
courtyard of the adjoining house."

"Yes; but here we are up two pairs of stairs."

"No matter: I have a way."

And turning towards his sister:

"Come, Gilberte," went on the young man, "give me a light, and let
me have some sheets."