"You see, mother, the Sections are in the majority, with the Commune."
"Ah, madam, madam!" cried Gertrude, running in in a fright. "Don't be too alarmed—Oh, heavens, there he is!"
Hardly had Gertrude uttered these words when advocate Desmarais, pale, half frightened to death, tumbled into the room, crying: "Save me! In heaven's name!"
And running to his wife and daughter, whom he pressed in his arms, he continued wailing, "Hide me! They are after me!"
"Fright has unbalanced you, father," said Charlotte. "No one is pursuing you."
Madam Desmarais had hurriedly found a bottle of smelling salts, which she held to the nose of her half-fainting spouse. He recovered his senses, and began again, in a quaking voice: "Thank you. You are generous. Now, I beseech you both, conceal me somewhere. Charlotte's husband may come back and be accompanied by some member of the General Council. I shall be recognized—arrested—guillotined. Pity me!"
"But, father, your fears are all exaggerated. My husband will not allow you to be arrested in his house."
At that moment Gertrude, opening a crack of the door, called mysteriously to her mistress:
"Madam, come at once!"
"What is it, Gertrude?" Charlotte asked. "Who is there?"