.. " Madame began in anguish.
"Pardon, madame. It is the utmost that I will do, and already I
am violating what I conceive to be my duty. If M. de La Tour d'Azyr
remains he not only ruins himself, but he imperils you. For unless
he departs at once, he goes with me to the headquarters of the
section, and the section will have his head on a pike inside the
hour. He is a notorious counter-revolutionary, a knight of the
dagger, one of those whom an exasperated populace is determined to
exterminate. Now, monsieur, you know what awaits you. Resolve
yourself and at once, for these ladies' sake."
"But you don't know, Andre-Louis!" Mme. de Plougastel's condition
was one of anguish indescribable. She came to him and clutched his
arm. "For the love of Heaven, Andre-Louis, be merciful with him!
You must!"
"But that is what I am being, madame - merciful; more merciful than
he deserves. And he knows it. Fate has meddled most oddly in our
concerns to bring us together to-night. Almost it is as if Fate
were forcing retribution at last upon him.
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