We remounted our horses. The rain had ceased; the forest was full of the delightful fragrance which leaves give out after a shower.
Our road back took us close to a keeper's house where we made enquiries about the hunting and were told that it had not been recommenced. Just then a group of horsemen came up from T… where they had taken shelter; among them was M. de Z… We joined them.
'So you took refuge here?' he enquired of me.
'No, not I, Mme. de Schoenfutz did. I came by just as she was remounting. I stopped with the keeper, Jean.'
In the drawing-room the same evening, the conversation turned on the storm and the interrupted hunt, and everyone told how he or she had fared while sheltering.
'In the house I was in,' said Mme. de Schoenfutz, 'they made me taste a sort of white sauce… You know it!' she added looking at me!
'Oh, yes!' I stammered, staggered by her audacity, — 'as I was passing you called me in!'
'Yes, that was so, and I made you try it. but you did not seem to fancy it!'
Her coldness simply dumbfounded me!
Then they all began to discuss what it could have been; every one expressed some opinion, but an old maid insisted that she knew it.
'Of course it was only milk thickened with maize powder! When it is warm and not too thick, it is very nice!!'
