Page:A Gentleman's Gentleman.djvu/206

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curiosity when eleven o'clock at night came, and I set off through the woods to take a second look at the pavilion. This time, however, I went warily, creeping like a shadow through the trees; and once at the little house, I did not content myself with watching it from the thicket opposite, as I had done the night before; but I lay down boldly at that side of it nearest the wood, and so placed myself that I could not only see my man, but hear him. And this I did without danger. The windows of the place looked out back and front; there was a thick bush to hide my body; and a great shadow, for the moon shone bright and clear, lying half over the lawn in the clearing. I was as safe from sight as a bird in the corn; the place could not have served me better if I had planned it myself.

Half an hour, perhaps, I lay thus crouching upon the grass before I heard any sound or saw any more. But, and this just when I was thinking that I had come out on a fool's errand, there was then a low whistling in the trees, and the door of the pavilion opened to let out the Comte de Faugère. At the same moment, the lad who had met him on the previous evening sprang out from the shadows of the copse, and stood a minute with the moonlight shining brightly on his face. I say "his face," but it should be "her face." The pair had not been there ten seconds when I recognized both of them. For the new-comer was no other than Mme. Pauline dressed up in boy's clothes. And the man she came