It was a severe case; but the man had been healthy, and Caius approved the arrangements that Madame Le Maitre had made to give him plenty of air and nourishment.
The wife was alone with her husband this morning, and when Caius had done all that was necessary, and given her directions for the proper protection of herself and the children, she told him that her eldest girl would go with him to the house of Madame Le Maitre.

That lady, said she simply, would tell him where he was to go next, and all he was to do upon the island.
"Upon my word!" said Caius again to himself, "it seems I am to be taken care of and instructed, truly." He had a sense of being patronized; but his spirits were high--nothing depressed him; and, remembering the alarming incident of the night before, he felt that the lady's protection might not be unnecessary.
When he got to the front of the house, for the first time in the morning light, he saw that the establishment was of ample size, but kept with no care for a tasteful appearance.

There was no path of any sort leading from the gate in the light paling to the door; all was a thick carpet of grass, covering the unlevelled ground.

The grass was waving madly in the wind, which coursed freely over undulating fields that here displayed no shrubs or trees of any sort.

Caius wondered if the wind always blew on these islands; it was blowing now with the same zest as the day before; the sun poured down with brilliancy upon everything, and the sea, seen in glimpses, was blue and tempestuous.