'Bon soir, monsieur!' How softly she had said it.

To know what was in her mind! The French--they were like cats--one could tell nothing! But--how pretty! What a perfect young thing to hold in one's arms! What a mother for his heir! And he thought, with a smile, of his family and their surprise at a French wife, and their curiosity, and of the way he would play with it and buffet it confound them! The poplars sighed in the darkness; an owl hooted.

Shadows deepened in the water.

'I will and must be free,' he thought.

'I won't hang about any longer.