"Quite so. Is there any immediate helping hand?"
"King Louis gives a pension. It's not much, but it keeps one from starving. And as for you, I've in keeping a packet for you from England. It reached me through Goodworth, the India merchant. I've a notion that your family will manage to put in your hand some annual amount. Of course your own fortune is sequestered and you can return neither to England nor to Scotland."
"My aunt may have had faith that I was living. She would do all that she could to help.... No, I'll not go back."
"Your chance would lie in some post here. Take up old acquaintances where they have power, and recommend yourself to new ones with power. Great ladies in especial," said Warburton.
"We haven't passed that by?"
Ian dreamed over the fire. At last he stretched his arms. "Let us go sleep, Warburton! I have come miles...."
"Yes, it is late. Oh, one thing more! Alexander Jardine is in Paris."
"Alexander!"
"I don't know what he is doing here. In with the writing, studying crew, I suppose. I came upon him by accident, near the Sorbonne. He did not see me and I did not speak."