This gained, she came up the path and
went in through the parlour door, and disappeared--alter making a
clear circuit of the house, and not once pausing or looking to
right or left! I confess I was fairly baffled. I sank back on
the seat I had left, and said to myself that this was the lamest
of all conclusions. I was sure that she had exchanged no word
with anyone. I was equally sure that she had not detected my
presence behind her. Why, then, had she made this strange
promenade, alone, unprotected, an hour after nightfall? No dog
had bayed, no one had moved, she had not once paused, or
listened, like a person expecting a rencontre. I could not make
it out. And I came no nearer to solving it, though I lay awake
an hour beyond my usual time.
In the morning, neither of the ladies descended to dinner, and I
heard that Mademoiselle was not so well. After a lonely meal,
therefore I missed them more than I should have supposed--I
retired to my favourite seat and fell to meditating.
The day was fine, and the garden pleasant. Sitting there with my
eyes on the old fashioned herb-beds, with the old-fashioned
scents in the air, and the dark belt of trees bounding the view
on either side, I could believe that I had been out of Paris not
three weeks, but three months.
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