He went to the door of the tent straining his eyes into the blackness. Alone in the great woods with the night noises, under the silent stars, things took on a different value. What was he compared to her?
Stripped of family and wealth, how would each measure before a judging world. "She was so"—he hesitated in his mind for a word—"she was so square," he said to himself. Wave after wave of pity swept over him as memory brought back to him her vividness, the fervid speech, the humor, the touch of her. He closed his eyes for a moment, she was in his arms, there came the odor of her dusky hair, and for the first time in his life he was a man.
"
Grègoire!" he called to the sleeping guide.
"Oui, monsieur."
"The distance to the nearest railroad?"
"By land—it is sixty miles, m'sieu."
"By the lakes?"
"It is much shorter, but of an extreme dangerousness."
"We will go by the lakes."