He pointed out to her, without speaking, but with an imperious gesture, the path that wound around the rock.
"Without you, then!" she said, in a gentle and proud tone.

And she began ascending.
Two minutes later, they reached the plateau above the cliff, and related to Clotilde the perils of their ascension, which explained sufficiently their evident agitation.

At least they thought so.
During the evening of this same day, Julia, Monsieur de Moras, and Clotilde were walking after dinner under the evergreens of the garden.
Monsieur de Lucan, after keeping them company for a short time, had just retired, under pretense of writing some letters.

He remained, however, but a few minutes in the library, where the sound of the others' voices reached his ears and disturbed his attention.

A desire for absolute solitude, for meditation, perhaps also some whimsical and unaccountable feeling, led him to that very ladies' walk stamped for him with such an indelible recollection.
He walked slowly through it for some time, in the deepening shades with which the falling night was rapidly filling it.