"I know you too well, Dame Marguerite, to imagine that a wise and discreet person like yourself would reproach me with being envious----" "Indeed, I would not venture, madam.... I would indeed not venture----" "And you would be right. What is there in your present fate to be envied. A storm is beating down upon you." "Envious people do not need much to be envious about. They envy even the calmness and courage derived from a clean conscience, when misfortune is on!" "You admit it?... Misfortune has come upon you and your husband?" cried the councilman's wife triumphantly, and for a moment forgetting her rôle of hypocrite. But recalling herself, she added cajolingly: "The avowal at least makes me hope that you will accept the services of my husband." Realizing the gravity of the last words of the councilman's wife, Marguerite fixed a penetrating look upon her and answered: "Did Master Maillart send you to offer his services to my husband? Whence such solicitude?" "Have the two not been friends since their childhood? Is the friendship of youth ever forgotten? You have earned our affection." "It is so at least with generous hearts. But if Master Maillart wishes to render a service to my husband, why should he send you, madam? Does he not meet Marcel daily at the town-hall?" "Since last evening, neither Maillart nor any of his friends have set foot at the town-hall ... and for good reasons. And for another reason he would not set foot here. That is why he has commissioned me to come and offer you his advice and services." "What does he advise ... what are his services?" "Maillart advises your husband to secretly leave Paris this very night." "We now know the advice; it implies a great resolution.... As to the service ... what is it?" "My husband offers to favor Marcel's flight if you adopt his advice." "And how?" "Maillart will send a trusty man to your house towards midnight. He shall accompany your husband. He is to wrap himself up well so as not to be recognized, and confidently follow our emissary, who is charged to see him safely off.... But your husband must be absolutely alone, otherwise our emissary will refuse to conduct him." "It seems to me that in his eagerness to advise and serve, Master Maillart forgets that Marcel and the town council--the governors, as they are called--are still masters of Paris. The captains of tens and the guards at the gates still obey them. If it should happen--a thing that I consider impossible--that my husband should contemplate quitting his post at the moment of danger, he would take horse with some of his friends, and would order whatever gate of Paris he chose to be opened.... He has the right and the power to do so."