Now, on this day, before profiting by an increased freedom, I tried, one by one, in the lock, keys which I had stolen from other doors here and there. I had no confidence. Suddenly the lock yielded. I opened the door, and I saw in the half light made by the closed shutters, the whole suite of rooms. I recognized as I went from threshold to threshold the special odor of each--each a little more musty than in the old days--the sort of odors that the Past would exhale, if one could travel in its dust. I followed on the tips of my toes a track on which many boots had left their mud--now dry. A mouse ran over the drawing-room carpet. On the billiard-table, the ivory balls--red and white--formed an isosceles triangle. Mentally I calculated the stroke, the amount of screw I should put on, and the place where I should hit the second ball, then I found myself in the boudoir itself. The clock, which had stopped, pointed to twelve. I felt myself very receptive. But, hardly had I had the leisure to see the shut door of the Yellow Room, than a sound brought me back hurriedly into the hall. It was no jesting matter. Lerne worked in the gray buildings, but he knew that I was in the _château_, and on such occasions, it was his custom to come in suddenly to watch me. It seemed to me prudent to put off the enterprise. An hour’s liberty was indispensable to me, so I evolved the following stratagem: The next day I went in my car to Grey-l’Abbaye, and I there bought several articles of toilet, and hid them in a bush in the forest, not far from the Park. On the day after that, after lunch, Emma heard me say: “I am going to Grey this afternoon. I am going to get some articles I need. If I cannot get them there, I shall push on to Nanthel. Have you any commissions to give me?” Fortunately, they had none, otherwise everything would have come to grief. By this means I could go out for a quarter-of-an-hour, and bring in my purchases from the bush, as if I had gone to make them in the village. Now, one might reckon on the journey from Fonval to Grey and back taking about an hour-and-a-quarter, so I had an hour at my disposal. I go out, leave my car in the thicket not far from the hiding-place in the bushes, then come into the garden again over the wall. The ivy on one side, and the trellis on the other, made it easier. Keeping close to the castle wall, I reached the hall. And now, I am in the drawing-room, with the door carefully shut behind me. In case I might need to make a dash, however, I thought it prudent not to turn the key, and now I am spying, with my eye to the lock of the yellow chamber. The keyhole was a large one. It made a sort of loop-hole through which a keen air was blowing--and what do I see? The room was dark and cut into layers by the shutters. A slanting ray seemed to be supporting the window with its column, and the motes of dust were dancing about in it as the worlds dance about in space.