Presently I saw her start and look round. Crespin was behind her, livid with rage. She promptly rose and followed him into the garden. Bishop had not seen the movement. We were near the door leading into the garden, and by turning a little I could see the couple outside, not far away. Crespin was standing with a bullying air, and was evidently cursing her. She had tossed back her hair and was looking him defiantly in the face. I saw her lips move in speech. Instantly the ruffian dealt her a violent blow upon the chest, and she staggered back against a tree, which prevented her falling.
"Come, let us stop that," I said to Bishop. "Hélène's lover is beating her in the garden." Bishop sprang to his feet and followed me. As he glanced out the window at the couple, whom I pointed out, he saw Crespin approach the dazed girl and deal her a terrible blow in the mouth, and he saw the blood that followed the blow.
We arrived in the garden as a crowd was gathering. Bishop pushed his way ahead and was about to spring upon the brute, when Hélène saw him. With a supreme effort she leaped forward, thrust Bishop aside with a command to mind his own affairs, threw herself into her lover's arms, and kissed him, smearing his face with her blood. He glared at us, triumphant. The guards arrived, and Hélène and her lover disappeared among the trees in the darkness.
"Oh, another unfaithful cocotte!" laughed one in the crowd, explaining to the guards; and they returned to their drinking and dancing, remarking, "Beat a woman, and she will love you."
They had all missed the heroism and devotion of Hélène's interference. It was to keep a knife out of the body of the man she loved that she smeared her lover's face with her blood. We saw her no more.
We returned to the hall and strolled round the promenade, for we needed that to become calm again. And the girls mobbed Bishop, for he had passed out the word that he wanted a model, and that he would pay a franc an hour. A franc an hour! And so they mobbed him. Was not that more than they could hope to earn by a whole day's hard work? Yes, they would all pose gladly, but only in costume, bien entendu! So Bishop was busy taking down the names of Marcelle, Lorette, Elise, Marie, and the rest, with the names of the queer and unheard-of streets in which they lived, mostly in the quarters of Montmartre and the Batignolles.
The can-can was now raging on the floor, and the tired garçons were dodging about with their glassladen trays. Dancing, making love, throwing lumps of sugar, the revellers enjoyed themselves.
We left. The moon cast gaunt shadows across the streets from the old windmills and the trees. We struck out briskly, intending to catch the last St.-Jacques 'bus home, and with that purpose we threaded the maze of steep passages and streets on our way to the Rue Muller. Upon reaching the top of the hill, behind the great skeleton of the Sacred Heart, where all was silent and still as the grave, we suddenly discovered the shadowy figures of men slipping out from a dark little street. We knew what it meant. With a common impulse we sprang forward, for it was now a run for our lives. I had recognized Crespin in the lead. With headlong speed we dashed down the steep incline, swinging our canes to check an attack in the rear. We had dodged out of our proper way to the Rue Muller, and now it was a matter of speed, endurance, and luck to reach blindly some street where life and protection might be found.
A man clutched my coat. I beat him off with my stick, but the skirt of my coat was hanging loose, nearly ripped off. A cord went whizzing past me and caught Bishop's hat, but he went sturdily on bareheaded. Stones flew past us, and presently one caught me a terrific, sickening blow in the back. I did not fall, but I staggered in my flight, for a strange heaviness came into my legs, and my head soon began to ache violently.
Crespin was desperately active. I could hear him panting heavily as he gained upon us. His long shadow, cast by the moon, showed that he was about to spring upon Bishop. I swung my cane blindly, but with all my might, and it fell upon his head and laid him low; but he quickly scrambled to his feet again. The ruffians were now upon us,—they were better used to the hill than we.