CHAPTER XXX.
WOLF! The Countess Lanovitch never quitted her own apartments before mid-day.
She had acquired a Parisian habit of being invisible until luncheon-time.

The two girls left the castle of Thors in a sleigh with one attendant at ten o'clock in order to reach the hut selected for luncheon by mid-day.

Etta did not accompany them.

She had a slight headache.
At eleven o'clock Claude de Chauxville returned alone, on horseback.
After the sportsmen had separated, each to gain his prearranged position in the forest, he had tripped over his rifle, seriously injuring the delicate sighting mechanism.

He found (he told the servant who opened the door for him) that he had just time to return for another rifle before the operation of closing in on the bears was to begin.
"If Madame the Princess," was visible, he went on, would the servant tell her that M.de Chauxville was waiting in the library to assure her that there was absolutely no danger to be anticipated in the day's sport.