He reached a junction of roads, and waited there for several minutes, unable to decide upon his course.

He ended by throwing the reins on Oberon's neck.
'Go which way you will,' he said aloud.
Oberon paced forward to the homeward route.
'So be it.

On, then! An hour will bring us to The Firs.' The house was all but reached, when Wilfrid caught a glimpse of a straw hat moving into a heath-clad hollow a hundred yards from the road.

He pressed on.

At the gate stood a gardener.
'James,' he cried, leaping down, 'take the horse to the stable, will you ?' And, instead of going up to the house, he walked back in the direction he had come till he reached the hollow in which the straw hat had disappeared.