�I say,� I broke out abruptly, addressing myself to the dumb circle, �do you know what you look like, the whole lot of you? You look as if you�d seen a ghost—that�s how you look! I wonder if there is a ghost here, and nobody but you left for it to appear to?� The dogs continued to gaze at me without moving...
It was dark when I saw Lanrivain�s motor lamps at the cross-roads—and I wasn�t exactly sorry to see them. I had the sense of having escaped from the loneliest place in the whole world, and of not liking loneliness—to that degree—as much as I had imagined I should. My friend had brought his solicitor back from Quimper for the night, and seated beside a fat and affable stranger I felt no inclination to talk of Kerfol...
But that evening, when Lanrivain and the solicitor were closeted in the study, Madame de Lanrivain began to question me in the drawing-room.
�Well—are you going to buy Kerfol?� she asked, tilting up her gay chin from her embroidery.
�I haven�t decided yet. The fact is, I couldn�t get into the house,� I said, as if I had simply postponed my decision, and meant to go back for another look.
�You couldn�t get in? Why, what happened? The family are mad to sell the place, and the old guardian has orders—�
�Very likely. But the old guardian wasn�t there.�
�What a pity! He must have gone to market. But his daughter—?�
�There was nobody about. At least I saw no one.�
�How extraordinary! Literally nobody?�