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'The conditions have not been observed,' remarked another stiffly.

'Pancallier!' cried the young man beside him-the same who had lodged at the inn with René the night before.

Lucien could restrain his curiosity no longer.

'Would you be so kind as to tell me the meaning of that expression?' he said.

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'I will, sir,' retorted the young man fiercely, as who should say, If you want me to run a dagger into you, I have not the slightest objection. It is a word we use in this part of the country for a kind of cabbage that grows very fast-oh, very fast indeed!—and has plenty of leaves, but no heart.'

'May I inquire, sir, what caused you to allude to this interesting vegetable?'

'Only, sir, the strange resemblance of some gentlemen to a cabbage of that order. It strikes one painfully irresistibly.'

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Am I the only sane man among a bevy of lunatics, or the only idiot in a houseful of reasonable people?' Lucien asked himself.

'How exquisite she is!' murmured René.

'I thought her plain.'

'What did you think, sir?' shouted the fierce young man, turning on Lucien.

'She may be Venus in person, or she may have pink eyes, and snakes in her hair like Medusa, for all I know. I saw nothing except a hat and a green veil.'

'Pancallier!' cried the furious young man. walked with the step of a

'Goddess?' René suggested.

'She

The young man had broken short off. Guibourg strode up to him and took him by both shoulders.

'Look here!' he said, not unkindly. You forget that Monsieur Sylvestre has come among us as a stranger. Where are your manners, de Monti? What business have you-has any one of us-to discuss the lady in this way? Be quiet! A cabbage is bad enough, but, upon my conscience, a fool is worse!'

7

CHAPTER XI

THE CAPTURE OF BLUM

'A gentleman wishes to speak to you, sir,' said the butler. (The emphasis on the word was doubtful.) 'He will not come in. He says he must see you at once.'

Lucien rose impatiently, as if someone had called him out of a theatre at the moment when the curtain was going to rise. Who might this gentleman be? What did he want?

His annoyance changed to astonishment when, at the foot of the steps, he beheld Charles Blum, hot and flushed, pounding his forehead with a tightly-rolled red cotton handkerchief, which seemed to make it redder.

'Plague take me if you are worth all the trouble I put myself to on your account!' was his first observation.

Lucien thought that it called for no reply. Through the open window he heard the voice of someone addressing those within.

'You must return with me at once,' continued Blum. You were sent here for no good-I am convinced of that. You will only be mixed up in a foolish Legitimist rising which can have but one end. The duchess is mad enough to attempt anything, but Louis-Philippe's troops are all over the country. She has not a chance of escape. Come back with me at

once to Lyons. The editor of the Glaneuse will be thankful to give you work on your own terms. He repented as soon as he had let you slip. He charged me to bring you back at any cost.'

Lucien hesitated. Through the window came the murmur of voices; now one rose higher and now another. Here was an evident way out of the difficulties that surrounded him. Why not avail himself of it? Blum spoke the truth, most likely, being seldom fanciful enough to speak anything else. He had but to leave a message to the effect that urgent business called him away, and he would be quit of these odd people and their enigmatical talk. But then he hated the evident way.

'You are a practical man, Blum. You must see that I cannot afford to lose the fruit of my journey. I have not yet been able to speak in private with colonel de Nacquart, and before I have done so I cannot decide upon my future course.'

Again those voices through the window. They were all in accord now, speaking together.

'Tell me,' said Blum: 'have you any idea what you are about? Have you ascertained why you were sent here in the first instance?'

'I am as ignorant as on the day I set out.'

'Do you know,' went on Blum, his voice rising louder and louder, that this house is a noted stronghold of disaffection—that the whole neighbourhood is full of conspirators?'

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'And if it were?' said Lucien, kicking a pebble.

Are you so blind to your own interests?'

'For all I know, they may be better served by my

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remaining. You forget that I am a Legitimist; you forget also that I have not been paid.'

Blum laughed.

'Well,' said he, 'let them pay you for what you have done; that is fair enough. I will wait until you have finished; then we can return to Lyons together.'

'Impossible! You cannot wait here; it may be hours before I am ready. Go back to Montaigu, and I will come to you there.'

'No,' said Blum, with dogged determination, ‘I am not going till you go with me.'

Immediately after Lucien's departure the marquis had been pointed out to him in the streets of Lyons, and the editor of the Glaneuse had mentioned that he was well known in earlier days as an ardent partisan of the Bourbons. Without even staying to tell Mademoiselle Jeanne, Blum had started at once to aid and rescue the victim. He would not be beaten now.

'I will not trust you among these men,' he went on; 'I have no confidence in them. Can you not send word to Nacquart that you are in haste, that you wish to see him without delay?'

Lucien shrugged his shoulders, and ran up the steps into the hall, rather to escape Blum than to look for the colonel. The gentlemen whom he had left were all gathered about one of the windows. Nobody turned round when he entered. He felt sure that they had been watching him as he walked up and down with Blum on the gravel terrace.

Will you not ask your friend into the house, sir?' Guibourg said, speaking more gravely than the occasion seemed to demand.

'Thank-you,' said Lucien, trying without success to

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