Reduced to the simple human statement that her temperament sought instinctively, it stood perhaps at this:  Her husband loved her, and he loved the trees as well; but the trees came first, claimed parts of him she did not know. She loved her God and him. He loved the trees and her.

Thus, in guise of some faint, distressing compromise, the matter shaped itself for her perplexed mind in the terms of conflict.  A silent, hidden battle raged, but as yet raged far away.  The breaking of the cedar was a visible outward fragment of a distant and mysterious encounter that was coming daily closer to them both.  The wind, instead of roaring in the Forest further out, now cam nearer, booming in fitful gusts about its edge and frontiers.

Meanwhile the summer dimmed.  The autumn winds went sighing through the woods, leaves turned to golden red, and the evenings were drawing in with cozy shadows before the first sign of anything seriously untoward made its appearance.  It came then with a flat, decided kind of violence that indicated mature preparation beforehand.  It was not impulsive nor ill-considered.  In a fashion it seemed expected, and indeed inevitable.  For within a fortnight of their annual change to the little village of Seillans above St. Raphael—­a change so regular for the past ten years that it was not even discussed between them—­David Bittacy abruptly refused to go.

Thompson had laid the tea-table, prepared the spirit lamp beneath the urn, pulled down the blinds in that swift and silent way she had, and left the room.  The lamps were still unlit.  The fire-light shone on the chintz armchairs, and Boxer lay asleep on the black horse-hair rug.  Upon the walls the gilt picture frames gleamed faintly, the pictures themselves indistinguishable.  Mrs. Bittacy had warmed the teapot and was in the act of pouring the water in to heat the cups when her husband, looking up from his chair across the hearth, made the abrupt announcement: 

“My dear,” he said, as though following a train of thought of which she only heard this final phrase, “it’s really quite impossible for me to go.”

And so abrupt, inconsequent, it sounded that she at first misunderstood.  She thought he meant to go out into the garden or the woods.  But her heart leaped all the same.  The tone of his voice was ominous.

“Of course not,” she answered, “it would be most unwise.  Why should you—?” She referred to the mist that always spread on autumn nights upon the lawn, but before she finished the sentence she knew that he referred to something else.  And her heart then gave its second horrible leap.

“David!  You mean abroad?” she gasped.

“I mean abroad, dear, yes.”