think! What endeavor she made to get out of her mind that which was
not in it! She could not but feel that it was all because she was
"such a fool"--for she could hardly believe that a whole country could
be so lacking in information.

Poor Janet! She even looked up toward the high sun and wondered what
kind of sailor science would compel him to divulge his relations with a
certain wooden gate. But there was no recognition there, no
acknowledgment. The four quarters of heaven were fitted together with
a viewless joint. All was silent. Everything was a secret.

Of course she finally thought of the obvious thing to do; but
afterwards she was sorry that she did, for that was just how she lost a
good part of the afternoon. She found traces of her horse's
course--here some flower stems had been broken, and a little farther
on, some more; and now that all was made plain she took her slicker,
which was tied in a roll behind the saddle, and, putting her mind
straight ahead on the course, she set out.

In his high gallop her horse had left no trail that she could follow as
a path--nothing but slight records which might be discovered upon close
and particular search. As his shoeless feet had made little or no
impression on the sward, and there were wide spaces where flowers were
sparse, she decided, in order to make progress, to go straight forward
in the direction which had been determined, and then, if the fence did
not put in an appearance, to refer to the trail again.

After a time, seeing nothing ahead, she began to look about, this side
and that, in doubt; and now, being "all turned round" again, she looked
for the trail. But she could not find it. Looking about everywhere,
round and round and farther and wider, she at last found herself
inspecting her own footsteps and following her own wandering path; and
here she gave it up utterly. She knew she was lost.

Again she peered out at a point in space and wondered if _that_ was the
place she came from. How different the distance looked now from what
it did when she saw it down that endless road. That, at least, gave
some shape to the future; and though she had been in doubt as to what
it might be like, she at least knew it was there. Now the future was
all around her. A thousand futures now confronted her--all done up
alike in blue and awaiting her chance move, this direction or that;
whereby she may be said to have been confronted with the world as it
i