and gradually between the trees he saw the faint outline of a
hill, dark against the dark sky. Slowly the white mist rolled from it,
a billowy, ghostly thing, that left a black, vague world, only dimly
seen. He looked at the sleeping girl, then at the hill; the fog was
clearing, there was no doubt about that; soon it would be quite gone,
but it would be a very dark night, the stars would hardly show, and
the moon was now long down. He was not at all sure of being able to
find his way across this undulating country, so entirely devoid of
prominent features, in a very dark night. Rather he was nearly sure
that he could not do it; and though he had a by no means low opinion
of Julia's abilities, he did not think that she could either. Also,
with a sense of dramatic fitness equal to that of the girl's he
thought their arrival in the town would be rather ill-timed if they
started now. It would be wiser to wait till after it was light, though
dawn was not so very early now, the summer being far advanced. So he
decided, and Julia slept peacefully on, her head dropping lower and
lower, till finally it reached his shoulder. But he did not move; he
left it resting there, and waited, thinking of nothing perhaps, or
anything; or perhaps of that unknown quantity, the natural man, which
has a way of stirring sometimes even in the most civilised, at night
time. So he sat and watched for the dawn.

CHAPTER X

TO-MORROW

It was a bright sunny morning, and, though the third and last day of
the fair, people went to their business as usual. The Dutch are early
risers, and set about their day's work in good time; but even had they
been the reverse, the latest of them would have been about before
Julia and Rawson-Clew reached the outskirts of the town. They had
stopped for breakfast at the first village they came to after leaving
the Dunes, this on the principle of being hung for a sheep rather than
a lamb. It did not seem to matter being a little later considering the
necessarily unreasonable hour of their return; also Julia, with the
instinct of her family for detail; preferred to set herself to rights
so as to present the best appearance possible when she arrived at the
Van Heigens'. It was not natural, of course, that a person should
appear too neat and orderly after a night of adventure, lost on the
Dunes; but the reverse was not becoming. Julia hit the medium between
the two with a nicety which might have cost one not a Polk