Part 33 (1/2)

”I cannot let hi for me, and--and, after all, there is you, and s and the others; surely--surely we are not going to let hiht, Lady Blakeney,” said Sir Andrew earnestly; ”we are not going to let hiht to save hireed to return to Paris There are one or two hidden places in and around the city known only to Percy and to the ue where heaway All the way between Paris and Calais we have places of refuge, places where any of us can hide at a given uises ant the to despair, Lady Blakeney; there are nineteen of us prepared to lay down our lives for the Scarlet Pimpernel

Already I, as his lieutenant, have been selected as the leader of as deter as has ever entered on a work of rescue before We leave for Paris to-morrow, and if human pluck and devotion can destroy mountains then we'll destroy them Our ord is: 'God save the Scarlet Pimpernel'”

He knelt beside her chair and kissed the cold fingers which, with a sad little smile, she held out to him

”And God bless you all!” she murmured

Suzanne had risen to her feet when her husband knelt; now he stood up beside her The dainty young wo her best to restrain her tears

”See how selfish I a your husband fros”

”My husband will go where his duty calls hinity ”I love hiood He could not leave his comrade, who is also his chief, in the lurch God will protect him, I knoould not ask hiloith pride She was the true wife of a soldier, and with all her dainty ways and childlike manners she was a splendid woman and a staunch friend Sir Percy Blakeney bad saved her entire family from death, the Comte and Comtesse de Tournai, the Vicomte, her brother, and she herself all owed their lives to the Scarlet Piet

”There is but little danger for us, I fear htly; ”the revolutionary Govern for the limbs Perhaps it feels that without our leader we are eneers, so much the better,” he added; ”but I don't anticipate any, unless we succeed in freeing our chief; and having freed hi more”

”The sauerite earnestly

”Now that they have captured Percy, those hu Percy I, like you, will have nothing more to fear, and if you fail--”

She paused and put her small, white hand on Sir Andrew's arm

”Take me with you, Sir Andrew,” she entreated; ”do not conde, day after day, wondering, guessing, never daring to hope, lest hope deferred be more hard to bear than dreary hopelessness”

Then as Sir Andrew, very undecided, yet half inclined to yield, stood silent and irresolute, she pressed her point, gently but firmly insistent

”I would not be in the way, Sir Andreould kno to efface myself so as not to interfere with your plans But, oh!” she added, while a quivering note of passion trembled in her voice, ”can't you see that I must breathe the air that he breathes else I shall stifle or o mad?”

Sir Andrew turned to his wife, a mute query in his eyes

”You would do an inhuman and a cruel act,” said Suzanne with seriousness that sat quaintly on her baby face, ”if you did not afford your protection to Marguerite, for I do believe that if you did not take her with you to-uerite thanked her friend with her eyes Suzanne was a child in nature, but she had a woman's heart She loved her husband, and, therefore, knew and understood what Marguerite er could resist the unfortunate woht that if she reland while Percy was in such deadly peril she ran the grave risk of losing her reason before the terrible strain of suspense He knew her to be a woreat physical endurance; and really he was quite honest when he said that he did not believe there would be ue of the Scarlet Pi their chief And if they did succeed, then indeed there would be nothing to fear, for the brave and loving ho, like every true woinning of tiht to share the fate, good or ill, of the man whom she loved

CHAPTER XXV PARIS ONCE MORE

Sir Andrew had just coet a little warain, and this ti out a cup of hot coffee which she had been brewing for hiive her, else he had not worn that wearied, despondent look in his kind face

”I'll just try one ,” he said as soon as he had sed some of the hot coffee--”a restaurant in the Rue de la Harpe; the o there for supper, and they are usually well infor definite there”