Nothing might occur; on the other hand, everything might occur, and it was only prudent to be prepared. Dwelling on this thought, I also took the little jewelled dagger which Rosa had given to Sir Cyril Smart at the historic reception of my Cousin Sullivan’s.

In the hall of the hotel I looked at the plan of Paris. Certainly Pantin seemed to be a very long way off. The route to it from the centre of the city — that is to say, the Place de l’Op�ra — followed the Rue Lafayette, which is the longest straight thoroughfare in Paris, and then the Rue d’Allemagne, which is a continuation, in the same direct line, of the Rue Lafayette. The suburb lay without the fortifications. The Rue Thiers — every Parisian suburb has its Rue Thiers — was about half a mile past the barrier, on the right.