Evening star., 1898-07-16
CHAPTER XIV.
In Hides Cham Der.

IN h1lde's Chamber.
When Hide was carried to the house on
the ramparts. unconsciousness had already
succeeded her brief delirium. Yolette's first
transports at sight of Hide and Bourke
were followed by days of terror and
sgonies of doubt. Hide was very i'll, so i'll
that Bourke brought Sister of Mercy to
the house in the first days of November,
and spent his money, almost to the last
franc for the necessaries that meant, per-
haps, life to Hide
But now the good Sister of Mercy had
gone to the hospitals again, and Yolette
sat all day long at Hides bedside. watch
ing her sister grow better and stronger.
The scar on her forehead healed, proms-
ing to show. however, tiny white cres-
cent; the reaction from the horror of that
October night left nothing of nervousness
or fear behind AS she grew stronger her
beauty, too, returned the hollows in temple
and cheek disappeared, the scarlet came
back>to her lips exquisite whteness to
neck and brow. But in the dark eyes
Bourke saw the the last sparkle of child
hood had died out forever; only the sad
ness of woman remained-the tenderness,
the wistfulness, the sweetness of a woman
who loves, who fears and who waits.
When, in the last weeks of November,
she was well enough, she told Bourke how
Speyer and his carbineers had forced her
into an ambulance, how they had traversed
the distracted city, how Flourens had met
Speyer and his detachment and had or
dered him to place Hide and Red Riding
Hood in the fortified church, where already
dozen frightened gray nuns had been i'm
prisoned.
What fate F1ourens designed for the gray
| nuns Bourke could not conjecture; what
fate had been reserved for Hide he dared
rot imagine. He told her nothing of the
murder of Speyer except that he was dead;
he never spoke of the fate of Mon Oncle or
of Bibi, nor did she ever mention it. al
though both Hide and Red Riding Hood
had seen the killing of those eminent ruff
fans.
government troops were hunting for
FlOurens and Buckhurst, and that for the
moment the carblEeers had skunk off and
mixed in with their equally ferocious fellow
citizens Of Belleville. The Undertakers'
Club, however, Continued, and as this was
really the head and heart of Flourens' bat
talions of bandits. and the government
weakly permitted its doors to remain open,
1t was clearly only a question of time when
Flourens and his carbineers should once
more reappear on the scene and raise the
red flag Of revolt. Buckhurst, it was
known, in company with a creature named
Sapia and the veteran Blanqui, was al
ready deep in mysterious secret society
that pretended to represent the entire ma
tional guard and called itself the central
committee. Naturally, it was a revolution
airy group. an obscure band Of cutthroats,
who sat like buzzards watching the agon-
lied city until their moment should arrive
to fatten on it's ruins.
When, in the carly days of October
Bourke's foresight had provided tins of pre-
served meat and vegetables as a reserve
in time of famine, Hide and Yolette had
laughed at such precautions. But now
these cans and tins of provisions had be-
come the only food of the little household.
Even while Hide was i'll YoIette obstinate
ly refused to take any of the delicacies pro-
vfded by Bourke. The marauding carbin-
eers had only begun to loot the cellar when
the news of their defeat at the Hotel-de-
Vile sent them packing. therefore the pro-
visions remained practically untouched up
to the day when Bourke refused to renew
the government card that entitled the little
household to rations or horseflesh and black
bread for three adults and a child.
Yolette baked little biscuits In the
kitchen. Red Riding Hood made soup.
And now that Hide was well enough to
come down stairs, they had dinner in the
dining room again, where, from their store
of fuel, good fire burned in the CRATE and
a candle sent its cheerful yellow rays into
the chill of the black hallway. The shadow
that fell on the house did not come from
the battle clouds gathering swiftly In the
south, nor from the sleet, the bitter cold,
the rain, nor yet from the spectacle of the
splendid, desolate city. naked and famished,
filthy and diseased. There was something
else that touched Hides face with the sub
tie pallor, that made her silence heart
breaking and her forced smiles terrible
Bourke knew. AT such moments he would
begin: You see. Hide, my theory is this:
Jim. finding that LIE Bourget was threat
ened struck out for himself, and wriggled
through the Prusssian lines, somewhere be-
tween the Fort de Ia Briche and ST. Denis
That's what would have done myself, lit
tie sister"
Then he would bring his map and stick
pins all over 1t and talk very cheerfully
until Hide, lying in her armchair, turned
her head away to conceal the tears that
came. At such moments, too, Yolette
would read aloud from Hugo, and her clear
young voice. pronouncing the superb lines