"It would not take me five minutes to help her," I said. "I must be
careful, but I need not be a churl." And I rode rapidly back.
I came in sight of her just as she was turning into the gateway of a
pretty house yard. Doubtless she lived there. I turned again and spun
away faster than I had gone that day.
For more than a month I journeyed and sojourned in a beautiful river
valley and among the low foot-hills of the mountains. The weather was
fair, the scenery was pleasing, and at last I came to believe that I
had passed the boundaries of Cathay. I took no tablets from my little
box. I did not feel that I had need of them.
In the course of time I ceased to travel north-ward. My vacation was
not very near its end, but I chose to turn my face towards the scene
of my coming duties. I made a wide circuit, I rode slowly, and I
stopped often.
One day I passed through a village, and at the outer edge of it a
little girl, about four years old, tried to cross the road. Tripping,
she fell down almost in front of me. It was only by a powerful and
sudden exertion that I prevented myself from going over her, and as I
wheeled across the road my machine came within two feet of her. She
lay there yelling in the dust. I dismounted, and, picking her up I
carried her to the other side of the road. There I left her to toddle
homeward while I went on my way. I could not but sigh as I thought
that I was again in Cathay.
Two days after this I entered Waterton. There was another road, said
to be a very pleasant one, which lay to the westward, and which would
have taken me to Walford through a country new to me, but I wished to
make no further explorations in Cathay, and if one journeys back upon
a road by which he came he will find the scenery very different.
I spent the night at the hotel, and after breakfast I very reluctantly
went to call upon the Willoughbys. I forced myself to do this, for,
considering the cordiality they had shown me, it would have required
more incivility than I possessed to pass through the town without
paying my respects. But to my great joy none of the ladies was at
home. I hastened from the house with a buoyant step, and was soon
speeding away, and away, and away.
The road was dry and hard, the sun was bright, but there was a fresh
breeze in my face, and I rolled along at a swift and steady rate. On,
on I went, until, before the sun had reached its highest point, I
wheeled out of the main road, rolled up a gravel path, and dismounted
in front of the Holly Sprig Inn.