CHAPTER XV.
ON THE BRIDGE.
To say that the Syndic, as soon as he had withdrawn, repented of his weakness and wished with all his heart that he had not opened until the _remedium_ was in his hand, is only to say that he was human.

He did more than this, indeed.

When he had advanced some paces in the direction of the Porte Tertasse he returned, and for a full minute he stood before the Royaumes' door irresolute; half-minded to knock and, casting the fear of publicity to the winds, to say that he must have at once that for which he had come.

He would get it, if he did, he was certain of that.

And for the rest, what the young men said or thought, or what others who heard their story might say or think, mattered not a straw now that he came to consider it; since he could have Basterga seized on the morrow, and all would pass for a part of his affair.
Yet he did not knock.