"Splendid, for a novice," I said.
"And a novice in skirts, short ones."
She went first down the other side, and I nearly pitched headlong in
assisting her as far down as possible. She lowered her skirts while I
followed and then I helped her into the domino, rejoicing in the silken
caress of her hair on my hands as I arranged the hood, a pleasant piece of
officiousness for which I got thanks I did not deserve, and off we started.
Again she asked nothing as to what we were going to do and whither we
were bound. The blazing windows of a comfortable inn might have been in
sight for aught she cared to all outward seeming. Yet here she was, close
on midnight, in bitterly cold weather, stepping out into rough and unknown
country in company with a man she had only known a few hours.
I went ahead and thought it over. For ten minutes we picked our way in
the deep shadow along the foot of the wall, _per opaca locorum_, as
the great weaver of words puts it, and then I turned outwards into the
open field and the clear moonlight. Of her own accord she placed her arm
in mine, and we stepped it out bravely together.
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