This time, surely, I should find a change.
But no! Another green ride stretched away into the depths of the
forest, with hedges of varying shades--here light and there dark,
as hazel and elder, or thorn, and yew and box prevailed--but
always high and stiff and impervious. Halfway down the ride
Madame's figure tripped steadily on, the only moving thing in
sight. I wondered, stood, and, when she vanished, followed-only
to find that she had entered another track, a little narrower but
in every other respect alike.
And so it went on for quite half an hour. Sometimes Madame
turned to the right, sometimes to the left. The maze seemed to
be endless. Once or twice I wondered whether she had lost her
way, and was merely seeking to return. But her steady,
purposeful gait, her measured pace, forbade the idea. I noticed,
too, that she seldom looked behind her--rarely to right or left.
Once the ride down which she passed was carpeted not with green,
but with the silvery, sheeny leaves of some creeping plant that
in the distance had a shimmer like that of water at evening. As
she trod this, with her face to the low sun, her tall grey figure
had a pure air that for the moment startled me--she looked
unearthly.
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