Josiah turned to me. "I thought you said—" he began.
"I was mistaken—I mean, I misunderstood you," I interposed.
Josiah stared, and then finished the harnessing. "Your coats are here under the seat," he remarked. I took my place mechanically. Mrs. Josiah came with some milk and sandwiches. I finished mine hurriedly, and took the reins.
Auber sank back into his corner without a word, leaving me to feel only a sense of desperate confused isolation, of lonely helplessness.
At length Auber said, in a voice that startled me, a low, contented voice: "You were on the path? You went to find me yourself?"
"Yes," I answered; and then, after a long time, "And you were not there—yourself?"
"No, I was not there." He leaned back against the cushions, and I thought he smiled. "I was in that hill meadow. I went to sleep there for a short time."
It was two o'clock when we drove into the yard. William was waiting to take the horses.
As we went into the house, William asked if he should have the trap for the 11.10 express. I could not answer, and Auber said, looking at me in the light of the open door, "Yes, certainly."