The Fifth of October

Alixe's gaze came back to her new friend's face, and she saw with astonishment that the Frenchwoman's blue eyes were full of tears.

"Is it the truth?" the stranger asked, with a slight break across the words. "It would be pleasant to Marie Antoinette of France to know that. She cared most for that--for love--far more than for greatness. She would have been glad to have lived--to have died, even, I believe--if she might know what Mademoiselle has told me."

The girl was surprised at the emphasis which the newcomer appeared to lay on her words; yet she considered the emotional French nature, and it came t