Doctor Bryerly went away.




CHAPTER XVII

_AN ADVENTURE_


For many days after our quarrel, Madame hardly spoke to me. As for lessons,
I was not much troubled with them. It was plain, too, that my father had
spoken to her, for she never after that day proposed our extending our
walks beyond the precincts of Knowl.

Knowl, however, was a very considerable territory, and it was possible
for a much better pedestrian than I to tire herself effectually, without
passing its limits. So we took occasionally long walks.

After some weeks of sullenness, during which for days at a time she hardly
spoke to me, and seemed lost in dark and evil abstraction, she once more,
and somewhat suddenly, recovered her spirits, and grew quite friendly. Her
gaieties and friendliness were not reassuring, and in my mind presaged
approaching mischief and treachery. The days were shortening to the wintry
span. The edge of the red sun had already touched the horizon as Madame and
I, overtaken at the warren by his last beams, were hastening homeward.

A narrow carriage-road traverses this wild region of the park, to which a
distant gate gives entrance. On descending into this unfrequented road, I
was surprised to see a carriage standing there. A thin, sly postilion,