"Is it not a little hard on an old man to be always asking
questions of him, and never answering one of his inquiries in
return?" he said to Rose, very gayly as to manner, but rather
uneasily as to look.
"He will not speak out till we two are alone," thought Trudaine.
"It is best to risk nothing, and to humor him."
"Come, come," he said aloud; "no grumbling. I admit that it is
your turn to hear our story now; and I will do my best to gratify
you. But before I begin," he added, turning to his sister, "let
me suggest, Rose, that if you have any household matters to
settle upstairs--"
"I know what you mean," she interrupted, hurriedly, taking up the
work which, during the last few minutes, she had allowed to drop
into her lap; "but I am stronger than you think; I can face the
worst of our recollections composedly. Go on, Louis; pray go
on--I am quite fit to stop and hear you."
"You know what we suffered in the first days of our suspense,
after the success of your stratagem," said Trudaine, turning to
Lomaque. "I think it was on the evening after we had seen you for
the last time at St. Lazare that strange, confused rumors of an
impending convulsion in Paris first penetrated within our prison
walls. During the next few days the faces of our jailers were
enough to show us that those rumors were true, and that the Reign
of Terror was actually threatened with overthrow at the hands of
the Moderate Party.
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