He stopped irresolutely, and cast a last, long, half-despairing look around him.

Hitherto he had given that part of the wood nearest the plain his greatest attention.

His glance now sought its darker recesses.
Suddenly he became breathless.

Was it a beam of sunlight that had pierced the groined roof above, and now rested against the trunk of one of the dimmer, more secluded giants?
No, it was moving; even as he gazed it slipped away, glanced against another tree, passed across one of the vaulted aisles, and then was lost again.

Brief as was the glimpse, he was not mistaken--it was the figure of a woman.
In another moment he was on her track, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing her reappear at a lesser distance.