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I went into the garden to refresh my eyes a little weary of the solemn uniformity of color in Fordwitch Wood by looking at the flowers. Reaching the terrace, in the first place, I heard below me a man's voice, speaking in tones of angry authority, and using language which expressed an intention of turning somebody out of the garden. I at once descended the steps which led to the flower-beds.
So far, Fordwitch Wood seemed to be a place to avoid, in the interests of my domestic tranquillity. Arriving at the cottage, I found the Lodger standing by the open window at which I had first seen him. But on this occasion, his personal appearance had undergone a singular process of transformation.
After consulting my watch, I satisfied myself that I could go to the mill, and get back again, before the hour fixed for our late dinner supper we should have called it in Germany. For the second time that day, and without any hesitation, I took the road that led to Fordwitch Wood. Crossing the glade, I encountered a stout young woman, filling a can with water from the spring.
Provided with a brush and a mixture of rum and treacle, I went into Fordwitch Wood to set the snare, familiar to hunters of moths, which we call sugaring the trees. The summer evening was hot and still; the time was between dusk and dark.
As one of the results of my ten years' banishment from home, I was obliged to ask the servant to show me the way to my own room, in my own house! The windows looked out on a view of Fordwitch Wood. As I opened the leaves which were to reveal to me the secret soul of the man whom I had so strangely met, the fading moonlight vanished, and the distant trees were lost in the gloom of a starless night.
I lit my cigar, but not on the terrace. Leaving the house, I took the way once more that led to Fordwitch Wood. What would Mrs. Roylake have said, if she had discovered that I was going back to the mill? There was no other alternative.
"For some part of the time," I answered, "I was catching moths in Fordwitch Wood." "What an extraordinary occupation for a young man! Well? And what did you do after that?" "I walked on through the wood, and renewed my old associations with the river and the mill." Mrs. Roylake's fascinating smile disappeared when I mentioned the mill. She suddenly became a cold lady I might even say a stiff lady.
I could propose no better place, at the moment, than the spring in Fordwitch Wood. She consented to meet me there, on the next day, if seven o'clock in the morning would not be too early for me. My German habits had accustomed me to early rising. She heard me tell her this and looked again at the Lodger's door and abruptly wished me good evening.
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