be responsible for my acts!"

Pascal heard a chair move, the floor creak, and a moment afterward
a lady passed quickly through the smoking-room. How was it that
she did not perceive him? No doubt, because she was greatly
agitated, in spite of her bravado. And, besides, he was standing
a little back in the shade. But he saw her, and his brain reeled.
"Good Lord! what a likeness!" he murmured.



III.


It was as if he had seen an apparition, and he was vainly striving
to drive away a terrible, mysterious fear, when a heavy footfall
made the floor of the dining-room creak anew. The noise restored
him to consciousness of his position. "It is the baron!" he
thought; "he is coming this way! If he finds me here I am lost; he
will never consent to help me. A man would never forgive another
man for hearing what I have just heard."

Why should he not try to make his escape? The card, bearing the
name of Maumejan, would be no proof of his visit. He could see
the baron somewhere else some other day--elsewhere than at his own
house, so that he need not fear the recognition of the servants.
These thoughts flashed through his mind, and he was about to fly,
when a harsh cry held him spell-bound. Baron Trigault was
standing on the threshold. His emotion, as is almost always the
case with corpulent people, was evinced by a frightful distortion