In any case she was a childhood’s companion of the Citizen-Deputy—­ whether on an equal or a humbler footing, Juliette would have given much to ascertain.

With the marvellous instinct peculiar to women of temperament, she had already divined Anne Mie’s love for Deroulede.  The poor young cripple’s very soul seemed to quiver magnetically at the bare mention of his name, her whole face became transfigured:  Juliette even thought her beautiful then.

She looked at herself critically in the glass, and adjusted a curl, which looked its best when it was rebellious.  She scrutinised her own face carefully; why? she could not tell:  another of those subtle feminine instincts perhaps.

The becoming simplicity of the prevailing mode suited her to perfection.  The waist line, rather high but clearly defined—­a precursor of the later more accentuated fashion—­gave grace to her long slender limbs, and emphasised the lissomeness of her figure.  The kerchief, edged with fine lace, and neatly folded across her bosom, softened the contour of her girlish bust and shoulders.

And her hair was a veritable glory round her dainty, piquant face.  Soft, fair, and curly, it emerged in a golden halo from beneath the prettiest little lace cap imaginable.

She turned and faced Anne Mie, ready to follow her out of the room, and the young crippled girl sighed as she smoothed down the folds of her own apron, and gave a final touch to the completion of Juliette’s attire.

The time before the evening meal slipped by like a dream-hour for Juliette.

She had lived so much alone, had led such an introspective life, that she had hardly realised and understood all that was going on around her.  At the time when the inner vitality of France first asserted itself and then swept away all that hindered its mad progress, she was tied to the invalid chair of her half-demented father; then, after that, the sheltering walls of the Ursuline Convent had hidden from her mental vision the true meaning of the great conflict, between the Old Era and the New.

Deroulede was neither a pedant nor yet a revolutionary:  his theories were Utopian and he had an extraordinary overpowering sympathy for his fellow-men.

After the first casual greetings with Juliette, he had continued a discussion with his mother, which the young girl’s entrance had interrupted.

He seemed to take but little notice of her, although at times his dark, keen eyes would seek hers, as if challenging her for a reply.

He was talking of the mob of Paris, whom he evidently understood so well.  Incidents such as the one which Juliette had provoked, had led to rape and theft, often to murder, before now:  but outside Citizen-Deputy Deroulede’s house everything was quiet, half-an-hour after Juliette’s escape from that howling, brutish crowd.

He had merely spoken to them, for about twenty minutes, and they had gone away quite quietly, without even touching one hair of his head.  He seemed to love them:  to know how to separate the little good that was in them, from that hard crust of evil, which misery had put around their hearts.