"Yes, thanks," she answered. "I am very tired. I suppose it is the
snow."
"Yes," said Catrina mechanically; "it is the snow."
She went toward the door, and there she paused.
"Does Paul love her?" she asked abruptly.
Maggie made no answer; and, as was her habit, Catrina replied to her own
question.
"You know he does not--you know he does not!" she said.
Then she went out, without waiting for an answer, closing the door
behind her. The closed door heard the reply.
"It will not matter much," said Maggie, "so long as he never finds it
out."
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.
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