Her slanting rays drew

all the houses into new perspective, so that their roofs, already

glistening with dew, seemed to stretch much higher into the sky than

usual, and their gables and quaint old towers lay far away in its

purple reaches.

The cathedral appeared unreal in a silver mist. He

moved softly, keeping to the shadows; but the streets were all deserted

and very silent; the doors were closed, the shutters fastened. Not a

soul was astir. The hush of night lay over everything; it was like a

town of the dead, a churchyard with gigantic and grotesque tombstones.

Wondering where all the busy life of the day had so utterly

disappeared to, he made his way to a back door that entered the inn by

means of the stables, thinking thus to reach his room unobserved. He

reached the courtyard safely and crossed it by keeping close to the

shadow of the wall. He sidled down it, mincing along on tiptoe, just as

the old men did when they entered the salle a manger. He was

horrified to find himself doing this instinctively. A strange impulse

came to him, catching him somehow in the centre of his body—an impulse

to drop upon all fours and run swiftly and silently. He glanced upwards

and the idea came to him to leap up upon his window-sill overhead

instead of going round by the stairs. This occurred to him as the

easiest, and most natural way. It was like the beginning of some

horrible transformation of himself into something else. He was

fearfully strung up.

The moon was higher now, and the shadows very dark

along the side of the street where he moved. He kept among the deepest

of them, and reached the porch with the glass doors.

But here there was light; the inmates,

unfortunately, were still about. Hoping to slip across the hall

unobserved and reach the stairs, he opened the door carefully and stole

in. Then he saw that the hall was not empty. A large dark thing lay

against the wall on his left. At first he thought it must be household

articles. Then it moved, and he thought it was an immense cat,

distorted in some way by the play of light and shadow. Then it rose

straight up before him and he saw that it was the proprietress.

What she had been doing in this position he could

only venture a dreadful guess, but the moment she stood up and faced

him he was aware of some terrible dignity clothing her about that

instantly recalled the girl’s strange saying that she was a queen. Huge

and sinister she stood there under the little oil lamp; alone with him

in the empty hall. Awe stirred in his heart, and the roots of some

ancient fear. He felt that he must bow to her and make some kind of

obeisance. The impulse was fierce and irresistible, as of long habit.

He glanced quickly about him. There was no one there. Then he

deliberately inclined his head toward her. He bowed.

“Enfin! M’sieur c’est done decide”. C’est bien

alors. J’en suis contente.”

Her words came to him sonorously as through a great open space.

Then the great figure came suddenly across the

flagged hall at him and seized his trembling hands. Some overpowering

force moved with her and caught him.

“On pourrait faire un p’tit tour ensemble, n’est-ce

pas? Nous y allons cette nuit et il faut s’exercer un peu d’avance pour

cela.