ndows, slipped round the east end of the house, passing between it
and the great yew hedge. Here I found all still and no one stirring; so,
keeping a wary eye about me, I went on round the house--reversing the
route which Madame had taken the night before--until I gained the rear
of the stables. Here I had scarcely paused a second to scan the ground
before two persons came out of the stable-court. They were Madame and
the porter.

They stood a brief while outside and looked up and down. Then Madame
said something to the man, and he nodded. Leaving him standing where he
was, she crossed the grass with a quick, light step, and vanished among
the trees.

In a moment my mind was made up to follow; and, as Clon turned at once
and went in, I was able to do so before it was too late. Bending low
among the shrubs, I ran hotfoot to the point where Madame had entered
the wood. Here I found a narrow path, and ran nimbly along it, and
presently saw her grey robe fluttering among the trees before me.
It only remained to keep out of her sight and give her no chance of
discovering that she was followed; and this I set myself to do. Once
or twice she glanced round, but the wood was of beech, the light
which passed between the leaves was mere twilight, and my clothes were
dark-coloured. I had every advantage, therefore, and little to fear
as long as I could keep her in view and still remain myself at such a
distance that the rustle of my tread would not disturb her.

Assured that she was on her way to meet her husband, whom my presence
kept from the house, I felt that the crisis had come at last, and I grew
more excited with each step I took. I detested the task of watching her;
it filled me with peevish disgust. But in proportion as I hated it I
was eager to have it done and be done with it, and succeed, and stuff my
ears and begone from the scene. When she presently came to the verge of
the beech wood, and, entering a little open clearing, seemed to loiter,
I went cautiously. This, I thought, must be the rendezvous; and I held
back warily, looking to see him step out of the thicket.

But he did not, and by-and-by she quickened her pace. She crossed the
open and entered a wide ride cut through a low, dense wood of alder and
dwarf oak--a wood so closely planted and so intertwined with hazel and
elder and box that the branches rose like a solid wall, twelve feet
high, on either side of the track.

Down this she passed, and I stood a