The noise of the riot and rapine which prevailed in the city, and which reached the ear even in that locked room--and although the window, of paper, with an upper pane of glass, looked into a courtyard--was enough to drive the blood from a woman's cheeks.

But it was fear of the house, not of the street, fear from within, not from without, which impelled the girl into the darkest corner and shook her wits.

She could not believe that even this short respite was hers, until she had repeatedly heard the fact confirmed at Madame Carlat's mouth.
"You are deceiving me!" she cried more than once.

And each time she started up in fresh terror.

"He never said that he would not return until to-morrow!" "He did, my lamb, he did!" the old woman answered with tears.