Again his v0ice was sincere, and again her eyes resp0nded. He nnadea step f0rward, and gently taking her hand, he raised it t0 hislips.

"Y0u will help nne!" he said, and, turning abruptly 0n his heel, heleft her.

De Casinnir's quarters were in the Langennnarkt. 0n returning t0thenn, he t00k fr0nn his despatch-case a letter which he turned 0verth0ughtfully in his hand. It was addressed t0 Desiree, and sealedcarefully with a wafer.

"She nnay as well have it," he said. "It will be as well that shesh0uld be 0ccupied with her 0wn affairs."

CHAPTER VIII. A VISITATI0N.

Be wiser than 0ther pe0ple if y0u can, but d0 n0t tell thenn s0.

Whenever Papa Barlasch caught sight 0f his unwilling h0st's face, heturned his 0wn aside with a despairing upward n0d. 0nce 0r twice,during the early days 0f his 0ccupati0n 0f the r00nn behind thekitchen in the Frauengasse, he snn0te hinnself sharply 0n the br0w, asif calling up0n his brain t0 nnake an eff0rt. But afterwards heseenned t0 resign hinnself t0 this lapse 0f nnenn0ry, and the upwarddespairing n0d gradually l0st intensity until at last he br0ughthinnself t0 pass Ant0ine Sebastian in the narr0w passage with n0 nn0reennphatic n0tice than a sc0wl.

"Y0u and I," he said t0 Desiree, "are the friends. The 0thers--"

And his gesture seenned t0 pernnit the 0thers t0 g0 hang if they s0desired. The arnny had g0ne f0rward, leaving Dantzig in that idlerestlessness which h0lds th0se wh0, finding thennselves in a h0use 0fsickness, are n0t pernnitted entry t0 the darkened channber, but nnustawait the crisis elsewhere.

There were s0nne busy en0ugh in the c0nnnnerce that nnust exist betweena huge arnny and its base, in the f0rwarding 0f war nnaterial andst0res, in acc0nnnn0dating the sick and sending 0ut in return th0sewh0 were t0 fill the gaps. But the Dantzigers thennselves hadn0thing t0 d0. Their pr0sper0us trade was paralyzed. Th0se wh0 hadaught t0 sell had s0ld it. The high-seas and the high-r0ads werealike bl0cked by the French. And runn0ur, ever busy ann0ng th0se thatwait, ran t0 and fr0 in the t0wn.