Jan-an meant, as soon as the unearthly visitor departed, to find Northrup and give the alarm. Kathryn thanked the girl sweetly and returned to her car. As she did so she saw the sign-board as Northrup had before her, and felt a bit foolish, but she also recalled that Northrup might be in the woods!
"You may go on to the inn," she said to her man, "and make arrangements. I am going to remain over night and start back early to-morrow morning. Explain that I am walking and will be there shortly."
The quiet man at the door of the car touched his cap and took his place at the wheel.
This was to Kathryn a thrilling adventure. The silence and beauty were as novel as any experience she had ever known, and her pulses quickened. The solitude of the woods was not restful to her, but it stimulated every sense. The leaves were dropping from the trees; the sunlight slanted through the lacy boughs in exquisite design, and the sky was as blue as midsummer. There was a smell of wood smoke in the crisp air; the feel of the sweet leaves, underfoot, was delightful. Kathryn "scruffed" along, unmindful of her high heels and thin silk stockings. She did not know that she _could_ be so excited.
She crossed the road and turned to the hill. An impish impulse swayed her. If she came upon Northrup! Well, how romantic and thrilling it would be! She fancied his surprise; his----Here she paused. Would it be joy or consternation that would betray Northrup?
Now, as it happened, Mary-Clare had given her morning up to the business of the Point and she was worn and super-sensitive. An underlying sense of hurry was upon her. When she had done all that she could do, she meant to go to her Place and lay her tired soul open to the influence that flooded the quiet sanctuary. All day this had sustained her. She would leave Noreen at the inn; send Jan-an back there, and would, after her hour in the cabin, seek Larry out and give him what he asked--the Point.
Through the hours at the inn she had feared Northrup's appearance, but when she learned that he had been away all night, she feared _for_ him. Her uneventful days seemed gone forever, and yet Mary-Clare knew that soon--oh, very soon--there would be to-morrows, just plain to-morrows running one into another.