lace and on that Wednesday
afternoon, yes, even if I must play truant and leave all the sick of
Bungay to Nature's nursing. Moreover, I was determined on one thing,
that if I could find Lily alone I would delay no longer, but tell her
all that was in my heart; no great secret indeed, for though no word
of love had ever passed between us as yet, each knew the other's hidden
thoughts. Not that I was in the way to become affianced to a maid, who
had my path to cut in the world, but I feared that if I delayed to make
sure of her affection my brother would be before me with her father,
and Lily might yield to that to which she would not yield if once we had
plighted troth.

Now it chanced that on this afternoon I was hard put to it to escape to
my tryst, for my master, the physician, was ailing, and sent me to visit
the sick for him, carrying them their medicines. At the last, however,
between four and five o'clock, I fled, asking no leave. Taking the
Norwich road I ran for a mile and more till I had passed the Manor House
and the church turn, and drew near to Ditchingham Park. Then I dropped
my pace to a walk, for I did not wish to come before Lily heated and
disordered, but rather looking my best, to which end I had put on my
Sunday garments. Now as I went down the little hill in the road that
runs past the park, I saw a man on horseback who looked first at the
bridle-path, that at this spot turns off to the right, then back across
the common lands towards the Vineyard Hills and the Waveney, and then
along the road as though he did not know which way to turn. I was quick
to notice things--though at this moment my mind was not at its swiftest,
being set on other matters, and chiefly as to how I should tell my tale
to Lily--and I saw at once that this man was not of our country.

He was very tall and noble-looking, dressed in rich garments of velvet
adorned by a gold chain that hung about his neck, and as I judged about
forty years of age. But it was his face which chiefly caught my eye, for
at that moment there was something terrible about it. It was long,
thin, and deeply carved; the eyes were large, and gleamed like gold in
sunlight; the mouth was small and well shaped, but it wore a devilish
and cruel sneer; the forehead lofty, indicating a man of mind, and
marked with a slight scar. For the rest the cavalier was dark and
southern-looking, his curling hair, like my own, was black, and he wore
a peaked chestnut-coloured