now gave him credit for more seriousness of purpose; and though
the chief had warned him against picking up acquaintances in
Paris, the young man felt that that restriction would certainly
not apply to a man like de Batz, whose hot partisanship of the
Royalist cause and hare-brained schemes for its restoration must
make him at one with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Armand accepted the other's cordial invitation. He, too, felt
that he would indeed be safer from observation in a crowded
theatre than in the streets. Among a closely packed throng bent
on amusement the sombrely-clad figure of a young man, with the
appearance of a student or of a journalist, would easily pass
unperceived.

But somehow, after the first ten minutes spent in de Batz' company
within the gloomy shelter of the small avant-scene box, Armand
already repented of the impulse which had prompted him to come to
the theatre to-night, and to renew acquaintanceship with the
ex-officer of the late King's Guard. Though he knew de Batz to be
an ardent Royalist, and even an active adherent of the monarchy,
he was soon conscious of a vague sense of mistrust of this
pompous, self-complacent individual, whose every utterance
breathed selfish aims rather than devotion to a forlorn cause.

Therefore, when the curtain rose at last on the first act of
Moliere's witty comedy, St. Just turned deliberately towards the
stage and tried to interest himself in the wordy quarrel between
Philinte and Alceste.

But this attitude on the part of the younger man did not seem to