e opposite."

"One would say, 'Thereby hangs a tale.'"

"There does. But it is not for strangers."

"I'm not a lover of after-dinner stories. Here comes the coffee.
Luckily, there's plenty for us both. Will you have a cigarette?"

"No, thanks."

"A cigar, then?"

"I don't smoke."

"Ah, some boys' heads _won't_ stand it. I'm ashamed to say that I
smoked at fourteen. But perhaps you're not yet----"

"I will change my mind and have a cigarette, since you are so
obliging."

"Sure you won't regret it?"

"Quite sure, thank you."

"They're rather strong."

"I'm not afraid."

He took a cigarette from my case, and smoked it daintily. Whether it
were my imagination, or whether a slight pallor did really become
visible under the sun-tan on the velvet-smooth face, I am not certain:
but at all events he rose when nothing was left between his fingers
save an ash clinging to a bit of gold paper, and excused himself with
belated politeness.

Not long after, my bed was made up on the floor, and I slept as I
fancy few kings sleep.

Strange; not then, or ever, did I dream of Helen.

* * * * *

The voice of Finois or some near relative of his roused me at dawn. I
remembered where I was, whither bound, and sleep instantly seemed
irrelevant. I scrambled up from my lonely couch, went to the open
window, which was a square of grey-green light, and looked out at the
mountain walls of the valley basin.

The day was not awake yet, but only half conscious that it must awake.
There was the faint thrill of mystery which comes with earliest dawn,
as though it were for you alone of all the world, and no one else
could find his way down its dim labyrinths. But even as I looked,
there came a movement near the house, and I saw the stalwart figure of
the landlord shape itself from the shadows. Other forms were stirring
too, the stolid forms of cows, and those of two sturdy little ponies,
which were being turned into a pasture.

It occurred to me that I could not do better than get through my
toilet, and, if Joseph and Finois were of the same mind, make an early
start. I thought that if I could reach the Hospice before all the
gold of sunrise had boiled over night's brim, I should have a picture
to frame in memory.

At bedtime they had given me a wooden tub such as laundresses use, and
filled it for my morning bath. I had my own soap, and a great, clean,
coarse dish-towel of crash or some such mat