Sank into the moss, which suddenly uncovered,
breathed water as a sponge breathes beneath the sea; sank into the Oise,
which set up a roaring as the rising water sapped and tunnelled under
its banks.
With a noise of thunder the winter roof of the villa slipped down and
fell into the garden--leaving the handiwork of man exposed to the
dawn--streaming tiles, ornamental chimneys, unburied gargoyles, parapet,
and towers of wood.
In a still earlier hour, while darkness yet concealed the change of
aspect, Fanny left the garden with a lantern in her hand. She had a
paper in her pocket, and on the paper was written the order of her
mission; the order ran clearly: "To take one officer to the
demobolisation centre at Amiens and proceed to Charleville"; but the
familiar words "and return" were not upon it.
She cast no glance back, yet in her mind sent no glance forward. She
could not think of what she left; she left nothing, since these romantic
forests would be as empty as tunnels when Julien was not there; but
closing the door of the garden gate softly behind her, she blew out the
lantern and hung it to the topmost spike, that Stewart, who was leaving
for England in the morning, might bequeath it to their landlady.
All night long the Renault had stood ready packed in the road by the
villa--and now, starting the engine, which ran soundlessly beneath the
bonnet--she drove from a village whose strangeness was hidden from her,
followed the Oise, which rumbled on a new note, heard the bubbling of
wild brooks through the trees, and was lost in the steamy moisture of a
thawing forest.
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