He breathed more freely when it was done.
A step sounded in the guard-room.

He sank without a rustle into the chair from which he had risen, rested his head against the back of it, closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and dissembled sleep.
The steps came swiftly across the guard-room floor, soft, as of one lightly shod; and Garnache wondered was it the mother or the son, just as he wondered what this ill-come visitor might be seeking.
The door of the antechamber was pushed gently open it had stood ajar--and under the lintel appeared the slender figure of Marius, still in his brown velvet suit as Garnache last had seen him.

He paused a moment to peer into the chamber.

Then he stepped forward, frowning to behold "Battista" so cosily ensconced.
"Ola there!" he cried, and kicked the sentry's outstretched legs, the more speedily to wake him.

"Is this the watch you keep ?" Garnache opened his eyes and stared a second dully at the disturber of his feigned slumbers.