It seemed an age before she at last
reached the end, and, turning sharply to the right, was in an
instant gone from sight.
I waited then no longer. I started off, and, running as lightly
and quietly as I could, I sped down the green alley. The sun
shone into it, the trees kept off the wind, and between heat and
haste I sweated finely. But the turf was soft, and the ground
fell slightly, and in little more than a minute I gained the end.
Fifty yards short of the turning I stopped, and, stealing on,
looked cautiously the way she had gone.
I saw before me a second ride, the twin of the other, and a
hundred and fifty paces down it her grey figure tripping on
between the green hedges. I stood and took breath, and cursed
the wood and the heat and Madame's wariness. We must have come a
league, or two-thirds of a league, at least. How far did the man
expect her to plod to meet him? I began to grow angry. There is
moderation even in the cooking of eggs, and this wood might
stretch into Spain, for all I knew!
Presently she turned the corner and was gone again, and I had to
repeat my manoeuvre.
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