Wensleben must have a great deal of business with the rector: we have
been here an immense time, and he does not seem inclined to make his
appearance.

"Oh, I dare say he will come soon. The matter cannot detain him long."

"What on earth can he have to do here?"

"Perhaps you would call it a mere fancy--the enthusiasm of youth."

"It has a name, I suppose?"

"Certainly, but--"

"Is it sufficiently important, think you, to make us run the risk of
being benighted on such roads as these?"

"Why, it is quite early in the day."

"But we have more than two leagues to go. Why will you not
speak?--there cannot any great mystery."

"Well, perhaps not a mystery, exactly, but just one of those subjects
on which we are usually reserved with others."

"So! so!" rejoined D'Effernay, with a little sneer. "Some love affair;
some girl or another who pursues him, that he wants to get rid of."

"Nothing of the kind, I can assure you," replied the captain drily.
"It could scarcely be more innocent. He wishes, in fact, to visit his