Part 19 (1/2)
He pulled the concierge's bell, and the latch of the outer door,open in response He entered, and fro, ed him with an oath directed at the unseee,” said Armand boldly, as without hesitation he walked quickly past the lodge ht for the stairs
It seee's room loud vituperations followed hiht of stairs and one more door separated him from Jeanne
He did not pause to think that she would in all probability be still in bed, that heMadaht not even care to ad imprudence of his actions He wanted to see Jeanne, and she was the other side of that wall
”He, citizen! Hola! Here! Curse you! Where are you?” caruff voice to him from below
He hadjust outside Jeanne's door He pulled the bell-handle, and heard the pleasing echo of the bell that would presently wake Mada her to the door
”Citizen! Hola! Curse you for an aristo! What are you doing there?”
The concierge, a stout, elderly man, wrapped in a blanket, his feet thrust in slippers, and carrying a guttering tallow candle, had appeared upon the landing
He held the candle up so that its feeble flickering rays fell on Armand's pale face, and on the damp cloak which fell away fro there?” reiterated the concierge with another oath from his prolific vocabulary
”As you see, citizen,” replied Are's front door bell”
”At this hour of the ?” queried the man with a sneer
”I desire to see her”
”Then you have coe with a rude laugh
”The wrong house? What do you mean?” stammered Armand, a little bewildered
”She is not here--quoi!” retorted the concierge, who now turned deliberately on his heel ”Go and look for her, citizen; it'll take you some time to find her”
He shuffled off in the direction of the stairs Ar to shake hiave another vigorous pull at the hell, then with one bound he overtook the concierge, as preparing to descend the stairs, and gripped hie?” he asked
His voice sounded quite strange in his own ear; his throat felt parched, and he had to ue before he was able to speak
”Arrested,” replied the man
”Arrested? When? Where? How?”
”When--late yesterday evening Where?--here in her rooents of the Committee of General Security She and the old wo back to bed, and you clear out of the house You area disturbance, and I shall be repri honest patriots out of their rasp and oncelike a man who has been stunned by a blow on the head His limbs were paralysed He could not for the n or on a word His brain was reeling, and he had to steady hiainst the wall or he would have fallen headlong on the floor He had lived in a whirl of excite that ti point Passion, joy, happiness, deadly danger, and hts had worn his mental endurance threadbare; want of proper food and a sleepless night had alear This blow came at a moment when he was least able to bear it
Jeanne had been arrested! Jeanne was in the hands of those brutes, whoarded yesterday with insur! Jeanne was in prison--she was arrested--she would be tried, condeht was so awful that it brought hie of e shuffling his way down the oak staircase; his portly figure assuantuan proportions, the candle which he carried looked like the dancing fla faces, hideous and contortioned,was dark The light had disappeared round the bend of the stairs; grinning faces and ghoulish visions vanished; he only saw Jeanne, his dainty, exquisite Jeanne, in the hands of those brutes He saw her as he had seen a year and a half ago the victied before a tribunal that was but a atory, and the responses from her perfect lips, that exquisite voice of hers veiled by tones of anguish He heard the condemnation, the rattle of the tumbril on the ill-paved streets--saw her there with hands clasped together, her eyes--