assed me without another word and
went to the door. Pechaud followed him, and began to urge something,
but was silenced with a rough word. Then he called for a light.
Pechaud came running back for the lantern, and through the open door,
as the light flickered on him, I saw De Ganache mount. Once he glanced
back at me. He could see nothing, for I was in darkness, but the
light which fell on his features showed him pale as ashes. The horse
backed a little. He drove his spurs in with an oath, and then I
heard him hammering through the night, going--God knows whither.
Beat--beat--beat--the iron-shod hoofs rushed through the village, and
the dogs awoke, and barked, barked and howled, long after he had passed
on his reckless course.

I waited a little, and then called to Pechaud. He came back slowly,
and set his lantern with a trembling hand on the table. For the rest
of the night we were in safety--that I knew.

"It grows late, Maitre Pechaud," I said, "and I need rest." And so I
left him.

CHAPTER XVIII

DR. JOHANNES CABALLUS

I made all arrangements betimes for an early start the next morning;
and, with a remembrance of what had passed between us last night,
ordered a table, with one cover only, to be set for mademoiselle near
the window of the dining-room. Then I went out into the garden to
while away the time there until my charge was ready for the journey.

There was a little walk outside the open window, through which I could
see all that passed within the dining-room. Here I paced backwards and
forwards, reflecting on the events of the past few hours. I could, of
course, see that for some reason or other Diane had apparently broken
with De Ganache. It was not a trick of heartless coquetry--for that I
gave her credit. Yet the change had been so swift and sudden that it
was difficult to assign any other reason for it. So far as I was
concerned I was sure my affair was utterly hopeless; but the air of the
Italian campaign would doubtless cure me, and I almost caught myself
wishing that I had lost the game last night and was free to turn my
horse's head where I listed.

In this disjointed thought I passed some time, and it was well after
nine o'clock that Diane came forth from her room. Through the window I
saw her descending the stair, and, not wishing to intrude, withdrew to
the extreme end of the walk, where I began to be interested in the
operations of a spider weaving his web in a rose