no moon that night, and the copse in which our pavilion
stands was like a blot against the starless heavens. As I drew near
it, my dog, the invariable companion of my walks, lifted a short,
sharp bark from the stables. But I knew whose hand had fastened
him, and I went on without giving him a thought. At the door of the
pavilion I stopped. All was dark within as without, and the silence
was something to overwhelm the heart. She was not there then, nor
was he. But he would be coming soon, and up or down between the
double hedge-rows.

I went to meet him. It was a small detail, but possibly a necessary
one. In her eyes he was probably handsome and gifted with all that
I openly lacked. But he was shallow and small for a man like me to
be concerned about. I laughed inwardly and with very conceivable
scorn as I heard the faint fall of his footsteps in the darkness.
It was nearly two and he meant to be prompt.

Our coming together in that narrow path was very much what I
expected it to be. I had put out my arms and touched the hedge on
either side, so that he could not escape me. When I heard him
drawing close, I found the voice I had not had for her, and
observed very quietly and with the cold politeness of a messenger:

"My wife finds herself indisposed since the ball, and begs to be
excused from joining you in the pleasant sail you proposed to her."

That, and no more; except that when he started and almost fell into
my arms, I found strength to add:

"The wind blows fresh to-night; you will have no difficulty in
leaving this shore. The difficulty will be to return."

I had no heart to kill him; he was young and he was frightened. I
heard the sob in his throat as I dropped my arm and he went flying
down to the river.

This was child's play; the rest--

My portion is to tell it; forty years ago it all befell, and till
now no word of it has ever left my lips.

There was no sound of her advancing tread across the lawn as I
stepped back into my own grounds to enter the pavilion. But as I
left the path and put foot inside the wall, I heard a far, faint
sound like the harsh closing of a door in timid hands, followed by
another bark from the dog, louder and sharper than the first--for
he did not recognize my Aline as mistress, though I had