Part 42 (1/2)
”Indeed, indeed, I do trust you,” she said, and looked with tear-died for some one in whom I could confide I have been so lonely lately, and Aresture she brushed away the tears which had gathered in her eyes
”What has Ar sirl eagerly, ”for he is kind and good, and chivalrous and noble Oh, I love him with all my heart! I loved him from the moment that I set eyes on him, and then he came to see land, and so nobly about his leader the Scarlet Piuerite, s ”I have heard of him”
”It was that day that citizen Heron came with his soldiers! Oh! you do not know citizen Heron He is the most cruel man in France In Paris he is hated by every one, and no one is safe from his spies He came to arrest Armand, but I was able to fool hi naivete, ”I felt as if, having saved Ared to me--and his love for me had made me his”
”Then I was arrested,” she continued after a slight pause, and at the recollection of what she had endured then her fresh voice still treed me to prison, and I spent two days in a dark cell, where--”
She hid her face in her hands, whilst a few sobs shook her whole fra of Armand I wondered where he was, and I knew that he would be eating out his heart with anxiety forover me At first I was transferred to the Temple prison, and there a kind creature--a sort of man-of-all work in the prison took compassion onvery early he brought s which he told me to put on quickly, and when I had done that he bade me follow him Oh! he was a very dirty, wretched man himself, but he must have had a kind heart He took me by the hand and made me carry his broom and brushes nobody took , and the passages were very dark and deserted; only once soan to chaff hihly I very nearly laughed then, only I had the good sense to restrain myself, for I knew thath the inter, whilst I prayed fervently to God for hiot out by one of the service stairs and exit, and then he dragged h some narrow streets until we ca My kind friend told et into the cart, and then he bade the driver on the box take ht to a house in the Rue St Gerrateful to the poor creature who had helped iven him some money, for I am sure he was very poor; but I had none by me He told me that I should be quite safe in the house in the Rue St Gered me to wait there patiently for a few days until I heard from one who had e for uerite had listened silently to this narrative so naively told by this child, who obviously had no idea to whoirl talked, her mind could folloith unspeakable pride and happiness every phase of that scene in the early dahen that ed man-of-all-work, unbeknown even to the wo, risked his own noble life for the sake of her whom his friend and coain the kind man to whom you owe your life?”
she asked
”No!” replied Jeanne ”I never saw him since; but when I arrived at the Rue St Gere of ed lishman whom Armand reveres, he whom they call the Scarlet Pi in the Rue St Germain l'Auxerrois, did you?”
”No Only three days The third day I received a coether with an unconditional certificate of safety It meant that I was free--quite free Oh! I could scarcely believe it I laughed and I cried until the people in the house thought that I had gone htain?”
”Yes They told him that I was free And he came here to see me He often comes; he will be here anon”
”But are you not afraid on his account and your own? He is--he must be still--'suspect'; a well-known adherent of the Scarlet Pimpernel, he would be safer out of Paris”
”No! oh, no! Arer He, too, has an unconditional certificate of safety”
”An unconditional certificate of safety?” asked Marguerite, whilst a deep frown of grave puzzlement appeared between her brows ”What does that o as he likes; that neither he nor I have anything to fear from Heron and his awful spies Oh! but for that sad and careworn look on Armand's face we could be so happy; but he is so unlike himself He is Arhtens uerite in a strange, toneless voice which she seemed quite unable to control, for that tonelessness ca as if her heart-strings were being gripped by huge, hard hands
”Yes, I know,” said Jeanne half hesitatingly, as if knowing, she was still unconvinced
”His chief, his comrade, the friend of whom you speak, the Scarlet Pimpernel, who risked his life in order to save yours, mademoiselle, is a prisoner in the hands of those that hate hiuerite had spoken with sudden vehemence There was al not to convince Jeanne only, but also herself, of sohtforward, and yet which appeared to be receding froradually yielding to a force as yet unborn, to a phantoed from out chaos
But Jeanne seemed unconscious of all this Her mind was absorbed in Armand, the man whom she loved in her simple, whole-hearted way, and who had seemed so different of late
”Oh, yes!” she said with a deep, sad sigh, whilst the ever-ready tears once athered in her eyes, ”Armand is very unhappy because of him
The Scarlet Pimpernel was his friend; Arirl, turning large, horror-filled eyes on Marguerite, ”that they want some inforive it they--they--”
”Yes, I know,” said Marguerite