The streets were filling, the classes were mustering.
And he sat here in the dark! The longer he stared into the strange, depressing gloom, the farther he seemed from life; the more solitary, the more hopeless, the more ominous seemed the position.
Alone with two women whom the worst of fates threatened! Whose pains and ultimate lot the brawl in which he had taken part foreshadowed too clearly.

For thus and with as little cause perished in those days thousands of the helpless and the friendless.

Alone with these two, under the roof from which all others had fled, barred with them behind the gloomy shutters until the hour came, and their fellows, shuddering, cast them out--what chance had he of escaping their lot?
Or what desire to escape it?
None, he told himself.

None! But he who fights best when blows are to be struck and things can be done finds it hard to sit still where it is the inevitable that must be faced.

And while Claude told himself that he had no desire to escape, since escape for her was impossible, his mind sought desperately the means of saving all.