When he came forth he dragged nothing behind him.
He returned to the side of the hut, cleansed something on the grass, and again put himself on the watch, though not as before, inside the hut, but without, on the shady side.

'Now for the second!' he said.
It was plain, even to the unsophisticated boy, that he now awaited the other person of the appointment--his wife, the Duchess--for what purpose it was terrible to think.

He seemed to be a man of such determined temper that he would scarcely hesitate in carrying out a course of revenge to the bitter end.

Moreover--though it was what the shepherd did not perceive--this was all the more probable, in that the moody Duke was labouring under the exaggerated impression which the sight of the meeting in dumb show had conveyed.
The jealous watcher waited long, but he waited in vain.

From within the hut the boy could hear his occasional exclamations of surprise, as if he were almost disappointed at the failure of his assumption that his guilty Duchess would surely keep the tryst.