Then, without a word, he made me a gesture to go to her.
She had halted a score of paces away; wondering, doubtless, what was on foot.

I rode towards her.

She wore her mask, so that I missed the expression of her face as I approached; but the manner in which she turned her horse's head uncompromisingly towards her brother and looked past me was full of meaning.

I felt the ground suddenly cut from under me.

I saluted her, trembling.
'Mademoiselle,' I said, 'will you grant me the privilege of your company for a few minutes as we ride ?' 'To what purpose ?' she answered; surely, in the coldest voice in which a woman ever spoke to a man.
'That I may explain to you a great many things you do not understand,' I murmured.
'I prefer to be in the dark,' she replied.