During the first two weeks Esperance
spent about five hours every day in the chair, but from the sixteenth
day she only devoted one hour for posing, after lunch, and then she
began to organize excursions to explore the country round about.
One morning as the four young people were returning from a bicycle
ride, they saw ahead of them the little brake on its return journey
from Palais to the farm which Mme. Darbois had used on a shopping
expedition with Marguerite. In the brake were two other persons--two
men. The excursionists were still too far from the carriage to
recognize the strangers. But Esperance, who was watching, stopped
suddenly. Genevieve, who was behind her, almost rode into her, and had
to jump lightly from her wheel. Maurice and Jean were some distance
behind. She called to them. They were much concerned to find
Esperance, with a pale face, clenching her hands on the handle-bar.
"What is it, cousin, what ails you?"
At first she did not speak at all, then her eyes lost their far-away
look and she gazed at Jean.
"I don't know," she said in a changed voice, "I think I had some
hallucination come upon me."
Then she pointed towards the distant brake which was approaching
Penhouet at a great pace.
"What did you see?" Maurice insisted. "You have had a dizzy feeling
come over you? You must be careful."
"Yes, perhaps so," she went on, shaking her head as if to rid it of
some vague thoughts that were disturbing her brain, "perhaps so.
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