How could he suspect unworthy motives in a young girl whose eyes were so pure, whose laugh rang out with the crystalline clearness of childhood! Involuntarily he compared her with the grave and thoughtful Marie-Anne, and his imagination floated from one to the other, inflamed by the strangeness of the contrast. He occupied a seat beside Mlle. Blanche at table; and they chatted gayly, amusing themselves at the expense of the other guests, who were again conversing upon political matters, and whose enthusiasm waxed warmer and warmer as course succeeded course. Champagne was served with the dessert; and the company drank to the allies whose victorious bayonets had forced a passage for the King to return to Paris; they drank to the English, to the Prussians, and to the Russians, whose horses were trampling the crops under foot. The name of d’Escorval heard, above the clink of the glasses, suddenly aroused Martial from his dream of enchantment. An old gentleman had just risen, and proposed that active measures should be taken to rid the neighborhood of the Baron d’Escorval. “The presence of such a man dishonors our country,” said he, “he is a frantic Jacobin, and admitted to be dangerous, since Monsieur Fouche has him upon his list of suspected persons; and he is even now under the surveillance of the police.” This discourse could not have failed to arouse intense anxiety in M. d’Escorval’s breast had he seen the ferocity expressed on almost every face. Still no one spoke; hesitation could be read in every eye. Martial, too, had turned so white that Mlle. Blanche remarked his pallor and thought he was ill. In fact, a terrible struggle was going on in the soul of the young marquis; a conflict between his honor and passion. Had he not longed only a few hours before to find some way of driving Maurice from the country? Ah, well! the opportunity he so ardently desired now presented itself. It was impossible to imagine a better one. If the proposed step was taken the Baron d’Escorval and his family would be forced to leave France forever! The company hesitated; Martial saw it, and felt that a single word from him, for or against, would decide the matter. After a few minutes of frightful uncertainty, honor triumphed. He rose and declared that the proposed measure was bad--impolitic. “Monsieur d’Escorval,” he remarked, “is one of those men who diffuse around them a perfume of honesty and justice. Have the good sense to respect the consideration which is justly his.” As he had foreseen, his words decided the matter. The cold and haughty manner which he knew so well how to assume, his few but incisive words, produced a great effect. “It would evidently be a great mistake!” was the general cry. Martial reseated himself; Mlle. Blanche leaned toward him. “You have done well,” she murmured; “you know how to defend your friends.”