with him
to the moonlit road to point his way. She showed him where the road
divided, and which path to take, and said that he must then pass three
houses and enter the fourth. She begged him, with courteous authority,
to hasten.

The houses were a good way apart. After half an hour's fast walking,
Caius came to the appointed place. The house was large, of
light-coloured wood, shingled all over roof and sides, and the light and
shades in the lapping of the shingles gave the soft effect almost as of
feathers in the lesser light of night. It stood in a large compound of
undulating grassy ground.

The whole lower floor of this house was one room. In the middle of it,
on a small pallet bedstead, lay the sick man. Beside him was a woman
dressed in gray homespun, apparently his wife, and another woman who
wore a dress not unlike that of a nun, a white cap being bandaged
closely round her forehead, cheeks and chin. The nun-like dress gave her
great dignity. She seemed to Caius a strong-featured woman of large
stature, apparently in early middle age. He was a good deal surprised
when he found that this was Madame Le Maitre. He had had no definite
notion of her, but this certainly did not fulfil his idea.

It was but the work of a short time to do all that could be done that
night for the sick man, to leave the remedies that were to be used. It
was now midnight. The hot stove in the room, causing reaction from the
strongly-stimulating air, made him again feel heavy with sleep. The
nun-like lady, who had as yet said almost nothing to him, now touched
him on the shoulder and beckoned him to follow her. She led him out into
the night again, round the house and into a barn, in either side of
which were tremendous bins of hay.

"Your house," she said, "is a long way from here, and you are very
tired. In the house here there is the infection." Here she pointed him
to the hay, and, giving him a warm blanket, bade him good-night.

Caius shut the door, and found that the place was lit by dusky rays of
moonlight that came through chinks in its walls. He climbed the ladder
that reached to the top of the hay, and rolled himself and his blanket
warmly in it. The barn was not cold. The airiness of the walls was a
relief to him after the infected room. Never had couch felt more
luxurious.

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW THEY LIVED ON THE CLOUD.

When the chinks of moonlight had been replaced by brighter chinks of
sunlight, the new doct