She strained to hear the last faint echoes till all sound was hidden by
a turn of the road, and the brief enchantment was at an end, leaving
her to the realities of life.
She dressed slowly, singing under her breath as she plaited her hair
before Agnes Sorel's mirror. Before she left the room she thrust the
loose sheets of Vardri's letter between the folds of her blouse,
leaving the envelope lying among the bed clothes.
Late in the afternoon one of the "comrades" brought her a cipher
message, warning her of a meeting arranged to take place in the "Black
Hole" up in the hills.
Half an hour after she left the Hippodrome she was in boy's clothes and
riding out to the _rendezvous_ to wait till the others appeared. She
had hoped for the chance of a talk with Emile, but to her surprise he
was not among those who mustered outside the town. She had never known
him to be absent from a meeting before, but it was not her business to
ask questions.
While the rest of the company occupied themselves with long and
bloodthirsty orations, and hatched fresh schemes for the destruction of
their fellow-creatures, and the regeneration of the whole earth, she
went quietly about her duties as stable boy.
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