"What a wonderful thing is this life of ours!" said Enguerrand. "The destiny of France at this moment hangs on a thread--I, a Frenchman, say to an English friend, 'Let us dine--a cutlet to-day and a fig for to- morrow;' and my English friend, distinguished native of a country with which we have the closest alliance, tells me that in this crisis of France he has business to attend to! My father is quite right; he accepts the Voltairean philosophy, and cries, _Vivent les indifferents_!" "My dear M. de Vandemar," said Graham, "in every country you will find the same thing. All individuals massed together constitute public life. Each individual has a life of his own, the claims and the habits and the needs of which do not suppress his sympathies with public life, but imperiously overrule them. Mrs. Morley, permit me to pull the check- string--I get out here." "I like that man," said Enguerrand, as he continued to ride by the fair American, "in language and esprit he is so French." "I use to like him better than you can," answered Mrs. Morley, "but in prejudice and stupidity he is so English. As it seems you are disengaged, come and partake, _pot au feu_, with Frank and me." "Charmed to do so," answered the cleverest and best bred of all Parisian _beaux garcons_, "but forgive me if I quit you soon. This poor France! _Entre nous_, I am very uneasy about the Parisian fever. I must run away after dinner to clubs and cafes to learn the last bulletins." "We have nothing like that French Legitimist in the States," said the fair American to herself, "unless we should ever be so silly as to make Legitimists of the ruined gentlemen of the South." Meanwhile Graham Vane went slowly back to his apartment. No false excuse had he made to Enguerrand; this evening was devoted to M. Renard, who told him little he had not known before; but his private life overruled his public, and all that night he, professed politician, thought sleeplessly, not over the crisis to France, which might alter the conditions of Europe, but the talk on his private life of that intermeddling American woman. CHAPTER IV. The next day, Wednesday, July 6th, commenced one of those eras in the world's history in which private life would vainly boast that it overrules Life Public. How many private lives does such a terrible time influence, absorb, darken with sorrow, crush into graves?