boys too timid after the rebuff we had experienced to fill the
gap, the conversation languished. The Vidame was not for his
part the man to put himself out on a hot day.

It was after one of these pauses--not the first but the longest--
that I started on finding his eyes fixed on mine. More, I
shivered. It is hard to describe, but there was a look in the
Vidame's eyes at that moment which I had never seen before. A
look of pain almost: of dumb savage alarm at any rate. From me
they passed slowly to Marie and mutely interrogated him. Then
the Vidame's glance travelled back to Catherine, and settled on
her.

Only a moment before she had been but too conscious of his
presence. Now, as it chanced by bad luck, or in the course of
Providence, something had drawn her attention elsewhere. She was
unconscious of his regard. Her own eyes were fixed in a far-away
gaze. Her colour was high, her lips were parted, her bosom
heaved gently.

The shadow deepened on the Vidame's face. Slowly he took his
eyes from hers, and looked northwards also.

Caylus Castle stands on a rock in the middle of the narrow valley
of that name. The town clusters about the ledges of the rock so
closely that when I was a boy I could fling a stone clear of the
houses. The hills are scarcely five hundred yards distant on
either side, rising in tamer colours from the green fields about
the brook. It is possible from the terrace to see the whole
valley, and the road which passes through it lengthwise.