The breakfast was ended, and the day's sport was about to begin in
earnest. But since noon the bright, sunny weather had changed; the
heavens were overcast, and there was a fear that one of the sudden,
heavy storms which were frequent at this season, might come before the
day was over.
The duchess, with some of her friends, had taken their stand upon a
height, from which they thought they could obtain the best view, but the
hunters took a sudden turn, and the lookers on were forced to follow.
It was at this juncture that a slight accident occurred to Frau von
Wallmoden; her saddle girth broke, and she would have had a disagreeable
fall had she not had the presence of mind to slip at once from her
saddle to the ground. To follow the riders was now an impossibility, for
her groom could not have obtained another saddle for her, so she decided
to send the servant over to Bucheneck with the horse, and follow on
foot, at her leisure.
It was a relief to her that this accident had occurred, it saved her the
weary necessity of following the hunt to its close, and permitted her to
drop for a time, in this solitude, the mask which she wore before the
world, and which was at times becoming almost too heavy for her to
carry.
Now that she was alone and unobserved, the cold, proud repose which had
been so noticeable since her wedding-day, departed as a shadow, and she
was a creature of another world.
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