old love; but his labour was vain. He felt her heart daily drifting away from his; and she no longer greeted him with the happy smile which he had known of yore.
One morning, early, after he had roamed alone as usual, he heard a slight noise, and, turning, he beheld the hideous form of Narjac, who slunk stealthily away.
It was enough! Gerard fled, he scarcely knew whither, down the steps of the terrace and across the broad garden, anxious only to escape. Onward he went, without a glance behind, through thickets, over brooks, until at last he was confronted by the wall of grey stone. No gate was visible, no door. He sought for one in vain; but even had he found it he had no key. Yet he dared not stay. A huge oak partly overhung the summit. He climbed it; he crawled out on a wide-spreading branch, and then he gained the top of the wall.
Before him was the rough world; but to his eyes it looked fairer than the garden behind him. Without hesitation he lowered
