‘Anyhow,’ he mused, when he got home, ’that makes five, six miles that you have tramped, to enjoy an instant’s glimpse of her.  Fortunately they say walking is good for the constitution.  It only shows what extremities a country life may drive one to.’

The next day, not only did her eyes meet his, but he could have sworn that she almost smiled.  Oh, a very furtive smile, the mere transitory suggestion of a smile.  But the inner commotion was more marked.

The next day (the fourth) she undoubtedly did smile, and slightly inclined her head.  He removed his hat, and went home, and waited impatiently for twenty-four hours to wear away.  ’She smiled—­she bowed,’ he kept repeating.  But, alas, he couldn’t forget that in that remote countryside it is very much the fashion for people who meet in the roads and lanes to bow as they pass.

On the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth days she bowed and smiled.

’I fairly wonder at myself—­to walk that distance for a bow and smile,’ said Paul.  ’To-morrow I’m going to speak. Faut brusquer les choses.’

And he penetrated into the forest, firmly determined to speak.  ’Only I can’t seem to think of anything very pat to say,’ he sighed.  ’Hello!  She’s off her horse.’

She was off her horse, standing beside it, holding the loose end of a strap in her hand.

Providence was favouring him.  Here was his obvious chance.  Something was wrong.  He could offer his assistance.  And yet, that inner commotion was so violent, he felt a little bewildered about the mot juste.  He approached her gradually, trying to compose himself and collect his wits.

She looked up, and said in French ’I beg your pardon.  Something has come undone.  Can you help me?’

Her voice was delicious, cool and smooth as ivory.  His heart pounded.  He vaguely bowed, and murmured, ‘I should be delighted.’

She stood aside a little, and he took her place.  He bent over the strap that was loose, and bit his lips, and cursed his embarrassments.  ‘Come, I mustn’t let her think me quite an ass.’  He was astonished at himself.  That he should still be capable of so strenuous a sensation!  ‘And I had thought I was blase!’ He was intensely conscious of the silence, of the solitude and dimness of the forest, and of their isolation there, so near to each other, that superb pale woman and himself.  But his eyes were bent on the misbehaving strap, which he held helplessly between his fingers.

At last he looked up at her.  ’How warm and beautiful and fragrant she is,’ he thought.  ’With her white face, with her dark eyes, with those red lips and that splendid figure—­what an heroic looking woman!’

‘This is altogether disgraceful,’ he said, ’and I assure you I’m covered with confusion.  But I won’t dissemble.  I haven’t the remotest notion what needs to be done.  I’m afraid this is the first time in my life I have ever touched anything belonging to a horse.’