The
weeks of rest had made her a different woman; there was a fresh colour
in her cheek, and the tired lines were all gone. She looked younger by
years than when he saw her last--younger, too, than when he had first
seen her, for even then she was weary. If he could only have seen the
line of her chin, or the height of her brow, or the way her hair turned
back from her temples, he thought that he might not have reckoned the
time when he had first seen her in the sick-room at Cloud Island as
their first meeting.
"You are going on?" said Madame Le Maitre.
"Unless I can be of service to you by turning with you."
He knew by the time of day that he must turn shortly; but he had no hope
that she wanted him to go with her.
"You can do me more service," she said, and she gave him a little smile
that was like the ghost of the sea-maid's smile, "by letting me go home
alone."
He rode on, and when he looked back he saw that her horse was galloping
and casting up a little cloud of light snow behind it, so that, riding
as it were upon a small white cloud, she disappeared round the turn of
the cliffs.
Caius found no more pictures that day that he felt to be worthy of much
attention. He went back to the festive scene of the marriage, and moving
his horse nearer and further from it, he found that only from the point
where the lady had taken her stand was it to be distinctly seen.
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