arm in his room, for at this early hour it was still quite dark; and
then taking his light in one hand he opened his door carefully so as to
make no noise, tip-toed along the landing, and went down the staircase
to join Therese in the dining-room. The girl was an accomplished
housekeeper already, and while waiting for the young fellow she had got
a scratch meal together.

"Let us have breakfast quickly," she suggested; "it isn't snowing this
morning, and if you like we might walk to the station. We have plenty of
time, and it will do us good to have a walk."

"It will warm us up anyhow," Charles Rambert replied; he was only
half-awake, but he sat beside Therese, and did justice to the
preparations she had made.

"Do you know that it is very wonderful of you to get up so punctually?"
Mme. de Langrune's granddaughter remarked. "How did you manage it? Last
night you were afraid you would sleep on as usual."

"It was not much trouble for me to wake up," Charles Rambert answered.
"I hardly closed an eye all night."

"But I promised to come and knock at your door myself, so you might have
slept without any anxiety."

"That's so, but to tell you the truth, Therese, I was regularly upset
and excited by the thought of papa arriving this morning."

They had both finished breakfast, and Therese got up.

"Shall we start?" she asked.

"Yes."

Therese opened the hall door, and the two young people went down the
flight of steps leading to the garden. The girl had thrown a big cloak
over her shoulders, and she inhaled the pure morning air with keen
delight.

"I love going out in the early morning," she declared.

"Well, I don't like it at all," Charles Rambert confessed with
characteristic candour. "Good Lord, how cold it is! And it is still
pitch dark!"

"Surely you are not going to be frightened?" said Therese teasingly.

Charles Rambert made an irritable movement of vexation and surprise.

"Frightened? What do you take me for, Therese? If I don't like going out
in the early morning it's really only because it is cold."

She laughed at him while they were crossing the lawn towards the
out-buildings, through which she meant to get out on to the high road.
As they passed the stables they came across a groom who was leisurely
getting an old brougham out of the coach-house.

"Don't hurry, Jean," Therese called out as she greeted him. "We are
going to walk to the station, and the only important thing is that you
shou