"One moment," said Harding, halting her as she was opening the door into the public hall. "The general has issued an order that if you go out, you are not to be allowed to return." Her hand fell from the knob. With flashing eyes she cried, "But that is impossible!" "It is his orders," said Harding, in his usual quiet manner. "And as he pays the bills he will be obeyed." She debated. Against her will, her trembling hand sought the knob again. Against her will, her weak arm began to draw the door open. Harding came toward her, stood before her and looked directly into her eyes. His eyes had dread and entreaty in them, but his voice was as always when he said: "You know him, Mrs. Siddall." "Yes," she said. "The reason he has got ALL he wanted--whatever he wanted--is that he will go to any length. Every other human being, almost, has a limit, beyond which they will not go--a physical fear or a moral fear or a fear of public opinion. But the general--he has no limit." "Yes," she said. And deathly pale and almost staggering she drew open the door and went out into the public hall. "For God's sake, Mrs. Siddall!" cried Harding, in great agitation. "Come in quickly. They are watching--they will tell him! Are you mad?" "I think I must be," said she. "I am sick with fear. I can hardly keep from dropping down here in a faint. Yet--" a strange look, a mingling of abject terror and passionate defiance, gave her an aspect quite insane--"I am going. Perhaps I, too, have no limit." And she went along the corridor, past a group of gaping and frightened servants, down the stairway and out by the private entrance for the grand apartments of the hotel in the Rue Raymond de l'Isle. She crossed the Rue de Rivoli and entered the Tuileries Gardens. It was only bracingly cool in the sunshine of that winter day. She seated herself on a chair on the terrace to regain her ebbed strength. Hardly had she sat down when the woman collector came and stood waiting for the two sous for the chair. Mildred opened her bag, found two coins. She gave the coppers to the woman. The other--all the money she had--was the fifty-centime piece. "But the bag--I can get a good deal for that," she said aloud. "I beg your pardon--I didn't catch that."