ngs, but
Elzevir hung back a little and said nothing, for it was sorely against
his judgement that he came at all. But as we neared the place I ceased my
chatter, and so we went on in silence, each busy with his own thoughts,
We did not come in front of Aldobrand's house, but turned out of the main
street down a side lane which we guessed would skirt the garden wall.
There were few people moving even in the streets, and in this little lane
there was not a soul to meet as we crept along in the shadow of the high
walls. We were not mistaken, for soon we came to what we judged was the
outside of Aldobrand's garden.

Here we paused for a minute, and I believe Elzevir was for making a last
remonstrance, but I gave him no chance, for I had found a place where
some bricks were loosened in the wall-face, and set myself to climb. It
was easy enough to scale for us, and in a minute we both dropped down in
a bed of soft mould on the other side. We pushed through some
gooseberry-bushes that caught the clothes, and distinguishing the outline
of the house, made that way, till in a few steps we stood on the
_Pelouse_ or turf, which I had seen from the balcony three hours before.
I knew the twirl of the walks, and the pattern of the beds; the rank of
hollyhocks that stood up all along the wall, and the poppies breathing
out a faint sickly odour in the night. An utter silence held all the
garden, and, the night being very clear, there was still enough light to
show the colours of the flowers when one looked close at them, though the
green of the leaves was turned to grey. We kept in the shadow of the
wall, and looked expectantly at the house. But no murmur came from it, it
might have been a house of the dead for any noise the living made there;
nor was there light in any window, except in one behind the balcony, to
which our eyes were turned first. In that room there was someone not yet
gone to rest, for we could see a lattice of light where a lamp shone
through the open work of the wooden blinds.

'He is up still,' I whispered, 'and the outside shutters are not closed.'
Elzevir nodded, and then I made straight for the bed where the red flower
grew. I had no need of any light to see the bells of that great rushy
thing, for it was different from any of the rest, and besides that was
planted by itself.

I pointed it out to Elzevir. 'The stone lies by the stalk of that
flower,' I said, 'on the side nearest to the house'; and then I staye