"Now?"

"Yes, now."

"You will be mad if you do," the other replied. He thought it the
petulant outcry of youth tired of inaction; a protest, and nothing more.

He was speedily undeceived. "Mad or not, I am going!" Tignonville
retorted. And he slid to the ground, and from the covert of the hanging
fringe of hay looked warily up and down the lane. "It is clear, I
think," he said. "Good-bye." And with no more, without one upward
glance or a gesture of the hand, with no further adieu or word of
gratitude, he walked out into the lane, turned briskly to the left, and
vanished.

The minister uttered a cry of surprise, and made as if he would descend
also.

"Come back, sir!" he called, as loudly as he dared. "M. de Tignonville,
come back! This is folly or worse!"

But M. de Tignonville was gone.

La Tribe listened a while, unable to believe it, and still expecting his
return. At last, hearing nothing, he slid, greatly excited, to the
ground and looked out. It was not until he had peered up and down the
lane and made sure that it was empty that he could persuade himself that
the other had gone for good. Then he climbed slowly and seriously to his
place again, and sighed as he settled himself.