Wild with grief, Mme. Favoral was wringing her hands.
"Vincent," she murmured, "in the name of Heaven spare us the harrowing agony to have you in prison."
Obstinately he remained silent. His daughter, Mlle. Gilberte, dropped upon her knees before him, and, joining her hands:
"I beseech you, father," she begged.
He shuddered all over. An unspeakable expression of suffering and anguish contracted his features; and, speaking in a scarcely intelligible voice:
"Ah! you are cruelly protracting my agony," he stammered. "What do you ask of me?"
"You must fly," declared M. Desclavettes.
"Which way? How? Do you not think that every precaution has been taken, that every issue is closely watched?"
