.

OF WHAT BEFELL AT REAUX.

At my captor's bidding I mounted.
the horse which they had untethered from the carriage, and we started off along the road which the coach itself had disappeared upon a moment before.

But we travelled at a gentle trot, which, after that evening's furious riding, was welcome to me.
With bitterness I reflected as I rode that the very moment at which Mademoiselle de Canaples had brought herself to think better of me was like to prove the last we should spend together.

Yet not altogether bitter was that reflection; for with it came also the consolation--whereof I had told her--that I had not been taken before she had had cause to change her mind concerning me.
That she should care for me was too preposterous an idea to be nourished, and, indeed, it was better--much better--that M.de Montresor had come before I, grown sanguine as lovers will, had again earned her scorn by showing her what my heart contained.