Dieppe  nodded.  "  It  will  not  keep  me
long,"  he  added  gravely.
The  driver  had  succeeded  in  restoring
148


The  Carriage  at  the  Ford

the  top  of  the  landau  to  a  precarious
stability.  Dieppe  handed  the  lady  down
from  the  box-seat  and  into  the  interior.
The  driver  mounted  his  perch;  the  lady
leant  out  of  the  window  to  take  fare-
well of  her  ally.
"  Every  hour  was  of  value  to  me,"  she
said,  with  a  plain  touch  of  emotion  in
her  voice,  "and  but  for  you  I  should
have  been  taken  back  to  Sasellano.  We
shall  meet  again,  I  hope."

"  I  shall  live  in  the  hope,"  said  he,  with
a  somewhat  excessive  gallantry— a  trick
of  which  he  could  not  cure  himself.
The  driver  whipped  up— he  did  not  in-
tend that  either  he  or  his  horses,  having
escaped  drowning,  should  die  of  cold.
The  equipage  lumbered  up  the  hill,  its
inmate  still  leaning  out  and  waving  her
hand.  Dieppe  watched  until  the  party
reached  the  zigzags  and  was  hidden  from
view,  though  he  still  heard  the  crack  of
the  whip.
"  Very  interesting,  very  interesting ! "
he  murmured  to  himself.  "  But  now  to
149


Captain  Dieppe

business!  Now  for  friend  Guillaume
and  the  Countess !  "  His  face  fell  as  he
spoke.  With  the  disappearance  of  ex-
citement, and  the  cessation  of  exertion,
he  realised  again  the  great  sorrow  that
faced  him  and  admitted  of  no  evasion.
