Part 54 (1/2)

There was a table in the middle of the room, and on it stood cups of hot coffee Chauvelin bade hie would do hiood Armand advanced further into the rooainst the wall On one of these sat his sister Marguerite

When she saw hio to him, but Chauvelin interposed in his usual bland, quiet manner

”Not just now, citizeness,” he said

She sat down again, and Armand noted how cold and stony seemed her eyes, as if life within her was at a stand-still, and a shadow that was almost like death had atrophied every emotion in her

”I trust you have not suffered too much from the cold, Lady Blakeney,”

resu here for so long, but delay at departure is soing his reiterated inquiry as to her comfort with an inclination of the head

Armand had forced himself to s some coffee, and for the moment he felt less chilled He held the cup between his two hands, and gradually some warmth crept into his bones

”Little lish, ”try and drink soood”

”Thank you, dear,” she replied ”I have had some I am not cold”

Then a door at the end of the roo to be all day in this confounded hole?” he queried roughly

Ar his sister very closely, saw that she started at the sight of the wretch, and seemed immediately to shrink still further within herself, whilst her eyes, suddenly luminous and dilated, rested on hi cobra

But Chauvelin was not to be shaken out of his suave manner

”One mo

Is the prisoner with you?” he added lightly

Heron nodded in the direction of the other room

”In there,” he said curtly

”Then, perhaps, if you will be so good, citizen, to invite him thither, I could explain to him his future position and our own”

Heronbetween his fleshy lips, then he turned back towards the open door, soleaunt head once or twice in a manner which apparently was understood froruffly; ”only the prisoner”

A second or two later Sir Percy Blakeney stood in the doorway; his hands were behind his back, obviously hand-cuffed, but he held hih it was clear that this caused hihty effort As soon as he had crossed the threshold his quick glance had swept right round the room

He saw Armand, and his eyes lit up aluerite, and his pale face took on suddenly ahiht-coloured eyes of his

Blakeney, conscious of this, htened, and the heavy lids fell over the hollow eyes, colance

But what even the most astute, e of understanding that passed at once between Marguerite and the ible, invisible to all save to her and to him She was prepared to see him, prepared to see in him all that she had feared; the weakness, the mental exhaustion, the submission to the inevitable Therefore she had also schooled her glance to express to him all that she knew she would not be allowed to say--the reassurance that she had read his last letter, that she had obeyed it to the last word, save where Fate and her eneht, imperceptible movement--imperceptible to every one save to him, she had seemed to handle a piece of paper in her kerchief, then she had nodded sloith her eyes--steadfast, reassuring--fixed upon hiave answer that he had understood