Then I swore in scorn of myself, and at the next
corner I had my reward. She was no longer walking on. She had
stopped, I found, and seated herself on a fallen tree that lay in
the ride.
For some time I stood in ambush watching her, and with each
minute I grew more impatient. At last I began to doubt--to have
strange thoughts. The green walls were growing dark. The sun
was sinking; a sharp, white peak, miles and miles away, which
closed the vista of the ride, began to flush and colour rosily.
Finally, but not before I had had leisure to grow uneasy, she
stood up and walked on more slowly. I waited, as usual, until
the next turning hid her. Then I hastened after her, and, warily
passing round the corner came face to face with her!
I knew all in a moment saw all in a flash: that she had fooled
me, tricked me, lured me away. Her face was white with scorn,
her eyes blazed; her figure, as she confronted me, trembled with
anger and infinite contempt.
'You spy!' she cried. 'You hound! You--gentleman! Oh, MON
DIEU! if you are one of us--if you are really not of the
CANAILLE--we shall pay for this some day! We shall pay a heavy
reckoning in the time to come! I did not think,' she continued,
and her every syllable was like the lash of a whip, 'that there
was anything so vile as you in this world!'
I stammered something--I do not know what.
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