embrace! Not to spend New Year's Day with him! No! she would not think
of it. And yet when, more than an hour later, they rolled into the yard
of "Les Trois Frères," there was no sign of the Brussels coach. It had
started half an hour before. "Les Trois Frères" was a quiet, homely inn,
little used excepting when the coach stopped there. Babette, pale and
trembling, got down and ran into the bar, where the landlord stood
smiling behind a row of bright pewter taps.

"Am I too late for the coach?" she cried. "Has it gone?" And then, when
the man told her she was indeed too late, all strength and energy left
her, and she sank sobbing on the wooden bench by the door.

There were two other men in the room, who looked at her curiously; she
was such a pretty girl, even in the midst of her grief. One was an old
pedlar, with his well-filled pack on the floor beside him. He had a
pleasant, homely face, and thin, bent figure. The other was a
middle-sized, powerful fellow, clean shaven and beetle-browed, and
dressed in shabby, ill-fitting garments. It was hard to tell what his
rank in life might be. He stared once again at Babette, and then handed
his glass to the host to be re-filled. The pedlar was the first to break
the silence.

[Illustration: "'CHEER UP, MY LASS', HE SAID KINDLY."]

"Cheer up, my lass," he said, kindly; "I too have missed the coach, and
I too must reach Brussels to-night. I have two thousand francs in notes
and gold in my pocketbook, which are the savings of a lifetime, and I am
going to pay them into the bank tomorrow. Then I shall give up my trade
and start a little shop."