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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the Tideway
+
+Author: Flora Annie Steel
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39847]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE TIDEWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (New York Public Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=sYwnAAAAMAAJ
+      (New York Public Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          FLORA ANNIE STEEL
+
+        Author of "On the Face of the Waters," "Miss Stuart's
+                  Legacy," "Red Rowans," etc., etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               New York
+                        THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                                 1897
+                        _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1897,
+                      By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                            Norwood Press
+             J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
+                         Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+                               PROLOGUE
+
+
+A Statue of charity with helpless childhood gathered to the ample
+bosom, and helpless age sheltered by the ample veil behind it, a
+crimson curtain concealing an angle in the stairway. In front a crowd
+streaming slackly, yet steadily, up the steps; a crowd which broke
+into little eddies of greeting, little backwaters of gossip, whilst
+the waves from the rear, taking advantage of the pause, rippled higher
+and higher. A crowd complaining indifferently of the crush, the heat,
+the impossibility of being in two places at once--not with reference
+to the hay-sweet meadows and copses where the nightingales were
+singing to the moon that summer's night, but in regard to some other
+hot staircase, where society was due some time ere the sun rose.
+
+To the man who, in a comfortable niche behind the statue, sate removed
+from the pressure of the current, the scene was framed by Charity's
+mantle. Perhaps it needed the setting; a crowd generally does whether
+it be in the old Kent Road or Grosvenor Square.
+
+"The Big Bear! I beg your pardon, Mr. Lockhart. Why aren't you in
+Rome, and is there room for me on that peaceful seat?"
+
+"There is always room for Golden Locks beside the Big Bear--and now,
+Lady Maud, why should I be in Rome at this season of the year?"
+
+"Because, being an artist, you should not mind malaria. Besides, what
+is malaria to this insufferable heat and crush? Doesn't it strike you
+that our hostess thinks getting into society, and getting society into
+her rooms, are synonymous terms? Did you ever see such a--"
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud, Charity!" interrupted her companion, pointing to
+the protecting arm stretched between them and the crowd. "Let it cover
+the multitude--"
+
+"Of sins? Thank you. I suppose I am wicked. But you--why are you here
+in the swim? When you profess to despise us--to renounce the world,
+the flesh, and the devil--"
+
+"Because I came to see one who should have nothing to do with that
+Trinity of Evil either. I came to see you, Lady Maud. I couldn't pass
+through Babylon without giving you my congratulations. So you are
+going to be married--"
+
+He paused, looking her in the face curiously.
+
+"Well! Why don't you say 'at last'? It is what every lady thinks, I'm
+sure. People have been coming perilously near calling me 'poor Lady
+Maud' these last two seasons, and now--yes! I am to marry Mr.
+Wilson--you know him, I think."
+
+"Yes, I do know that fortunate man, and, pardon me, Lady Maud, but you
+and I have been confidential, haven't we? ever since in a _tourbillon_
+of white frills and blue sashes you chose to prefer my walnuts to
+other folks' sweeties at dessert. Now about Eustace. What is to become
+of him?"
+
+The pretty face winced just a little.
+
+"Haven't you heard? Eustace is to be married also; indeed, we think of
+choosing the same day."
+
+"Out of bravado?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind. Eustace and I have put away--childish things. We
+have decided to be sensible, and he is marrying Louisa Capper, the
+American heiress. I like Louisa."
+
+"I trust that feeling is shared by Eustace."
+
+"How hopelessly old-fashioned you are, Big Bear! I don't believe you
+will ever learn to shave yourself in tufts, and become a civilized
+poodle. Of course he likes her. She is really a very nice girl, and
+then she only has a father. Don't you think the American '_par-par_'
+is less objectionable as a rule than the '_mar-mar_'? To be
+serious,--which I should not trouble to be with ninety-nine people out
+of a hundred,--Eustace and I have seen the error of our ways, and we
+intend--in fact, I personally expect to be very happy. As I said,
+Louisa is very--"
+
+"Where do you spend the honeymoon?" he interrupted, not being in the
+least interested in Louisa's part in the business.
+
+"Again hopelessly old-fashioned! There is but one place, nowadays, in
+which to spend a honeymoon,--Paris. It is so full of distractions.
+Then Mr. Wilson has taken a grouse moor near the North Pole; Eustace
+is to come there in his new yacht, and we are to have a real good
+time; as Louisa--"
+
+"Near the North Pole? Didn't know grouse grew there."
+
+"Well, it is not very far from it. I forget the name,--but see! there
+is Eustace behind old Lady Brecknock's feathers. He will remember."
+
+A very handsome dark man in the stream saw her signal and drifted
+sideways to shelter.
+
+"Charity cometh," he began.
+
+"Please not. Mr. Lockhart has patented it already; besides, I want you
+to tell me the name of that place in the Hebrides. Roederay! Yes, of
+course! I remember now that it put me in mind of dry champagne. By the
+way, you used to paint that coast once, Mr. Lockhart; do you by chance
+know Roederay?"
+
+What is called a flicker of expression crossed her hearer's face. It
+is a poor description for the absolute blank which a chance word
+brings to some imaginative people by summoning them from the present
+into the past.
+
+"I know it well," he replied. "And if you will excuse me, Lady Maud, I
+don't think it has much in common with dry champagne."
+
+Her clear, rather scornful eyes were on him critically.
+
+"Association belongs to Hope as well as Memory, Mr. Lockhart. You may
+have had a _mauvais quart d'heure_ at Roederay. We intend to have a
+good time; don't we, Eustace?"
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"I doubt it," retorted the elder man; "civilized people, like you,
+Eustace, for instance, shouldn't go to those places. To begin with,
+there is always a difficulty about dinner."
+
+Lady Maud laughed. "Not in these days of ice and telegraphs. Besides,
+some of us like high teas--don't we, Eustace?"
+
+His face did not change, though the appeal took him back many years in
+his turn; but then, the speaker was in that past as she was in the
+present. To say sooth, she occupied them both fully.
+
+"Yes, we can endure them. Do you remember those holidays at Lynmouth,
+Maud, and the feeds we had on the cliffs? I wonder if any boy ate more
+strawberries and cream at a sitting than I could do in those days?"
+
+"Have you changed much since then?" she asked, smiling up at him
+mischievously. "I don't see it, do you, Mr. Lockhart?"
+
+"Not a bit," replied the elder, laying his hand affectionately on the
+other's shoulder. "Eustace is just what he was as a boy--not to be
+stinted in his enjoyment of good things. To return, however, to
+Roederay. You won't like its simplicity, its habit of taking one right
+down to first principles."
+
+"It couldn't! we are too complex--aren't we, Eustace?"
+
+"And then it is grim. There is an island full of dead people, who
+appear--"
+
+"Ah! I know all about the stone coffins and the bones; Professor
+Endorwick told me, and he is coming north on purpose to explore all
+the antiquities. There he is in the crush with Cynthia Strong. I
+wonder when that will come off? Call them here, Eustace, and wisdom
+shall confound this Evil Prophet. Why, the professor, Mr. Lockhart,
+thinks _Eilean-a-varai_ alone is sufficient inducement for a visit to
+Roederay."
+
+"_Eilean-a-varai_--Isle of the Dead, you call it? We used to prefer
+another name: _Eilean-a-fa-ash_--Island of Rest. It lies right out in
+the sunset, like Avilion."
+
+Lady Maud gave a little shiver.
+
+"Oh no! that is ever so much more grim than the other. I hate things
+which--which appeal to the imagination."
+
+"I am quite aware of it," he replied quietly; "hence my prophecy that
+Roederay will not suit you."
+
+She sate playing with her fan idly. "Island of Rest indeed! There
+never was such a place--there never will be. Ah, professor, come like
+a good soul and do battle for civilization and culture. Are we not far
+better than the primitives of the North Pole? Are we not stronger,
+wiser, more original--"
+
+The learned professor, being a little deaf, did not quite catch her
+words. He was, in addition, much given to the jocular style when
+addressing the weaker sex, which he held to have been created for the
+sole purpose of exercising the social qualities of man. So, an
+appropriate remark having occurred to him, he came forward primed with
+it.
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud, is, as a rule said to cover a multitude of sins;
+in this case it conceals the virtues."
+
+And he was greatly pleased with himself when everybody laughed.
+
+"On the whole, I retract 'original,'" continued Lady Maud gravely; "so
+you needn't defend that proposition, professor. How can we be
+original? There is nothing new under the sun; even one's jokes have
+been appropriated by past generations. Everything has been used up."
+
+"Not everything," said Will Lockhart. "To return to Roederay, for
+instance. You will be next-door neighbours to the Gulf Stream. It is
+not used up; far from it. _That_, Lady Maud, will be another of the
+horrid things which appeal to the imagination. Night and day--day and
+night--"
+
+She shrugged her pretty bare shoulders.
+
+"There is the Gulf Stream I like," she replied, pointing to the crowd
+still surging onwards. "Why should you abuse it? We go on day and
+night, night and day. Upwards and onwards--to heaven, for all you
+know. I defy you and your old-world ideas and romances. We are going
+down to Roederay to paddle about where we choose, catalogue your dead
+people and their beliefs as we choose, and we are going to eat our
+dinner and kill everything we see. There is one of the slayers in the
+stream, Arthur Weeks, the best shot in England, so people say. Ah!
+Captain Weeks, Mr. Wilson tells me you are coming to Roederay. I am
+glad."
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud," began the gallant warrior.
+
+"That is not your bird, Captain Weeks! Mr. Lockhart, my cousin
+Eustace, and the professor have all blazed away at that poor joke
+already. Of course, your gun would bring it down, but please be
+merciful. Let it go for another day."
+
+"That reminds me, Gordon," said the captain confidentially to Lady
+Maud's cousin, when the laugh had ceased, "I was speaking to old
+Snapshot about Roederay, and he assures me that the birds lie like
+stones in that part. Something, he said, to do with the Gulf
+Stream--but I don't know much of these scientific things, Lady Maud.
+Only I assure you he declares you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like
+chickens on the last day of the season."
+
+There was a solemn pause. The advantages of Roederay seemed exhausted
+on all sides.
+
+"If some one will give me his arm," said Lady Maud, rising, "I will go
+upstairs--to Paradise, perhaps, Mr. Lockhart. I really must say how do
+you do to our hostess before going on to the next."
+
+
+
+
+                                  I
+
+
+"Any luck, Rick?" called a lady sitting on the doorstep of Eval House
+to a young man coming up the ferry-path. His rod was balanced level in
+his hand, his head bent forward against half a gale of wind, which,
+after sweeping the grass slopes into silvery waves, raced with white
+horses over the greener sea beyond. Yet on the doorstep, with the
+stone house betwixt you and the nor'west, the day was warm and still
+as any autumn day can be when a bright sun shines clear out of a
+brilliant blue sky.
+
+She was a very small lady, looking all the smaller because the energy
+expressed in every line of face and figure suggested its adequacy for
+the direction of a far larger mass of matter. Looking still smaller at
+that particular moment by reason of her being overwhelmed by a fleecy
+lamb she was endeavouring to feed with a teapot. For the rest, a lady
+long past youth, yet with sufficient traces of it left to show that it
+had been pre-eminently attractive.
+
+"Luck, Aunt Will? Why, yes, the best of luck. I've seen the most
+beautiful woman in the world."
+
+Miss Willina smiled.
+
+"Who will that be now? And is it twenty or twenty-one you are next
+month? Twenty-one, is it--yes: time passes. Then as you are so near
+man's estate it won't be Maclead's niece from Glasgow; she is too red
+in the face. Nor Katie Macqueen; you've seen her too often. Nor me,
+either, Rick, though I used to be called that sometimes."
+
+The transparent vanity in her tone made her nephew smile in his turn.
+
+"It's no home-grown beauty, Aunt Will. It's a London belle,--Lady Maud
+Wilson. You should just--"
+
+The sudden upset of a lamb, whose four pointed toes strove for
+foothold against his legs, checked further speech. His aunt, however,
+waving the teapot in her excitement, filled up the pause, aided by a
+sick gosling which had fluttered down from her lap as she rose.
+
+"The Wilsons! Why didn't you tell me at once? Have they come at last?
+And why didn't they come before? And where are their servants? Why
+didn't they send word to the factor? And goody gracious me, Rick! what
+are they going to do?"
+
+"If you'll put that teapot at a safer distance and prevent Baalam from
+making me curse utterly, I'll try and explain."
+
+A minute of frantic shoving, joined by a chorus of hounds from within,
+and Miss Will Macdonald returned breathless to her seat on the steps,
+while the sick gosling fluttered to her lap once more.
+
+"This is what I could gather. They have been deer-stalking with
+friends, because the grouse here were reported late. So they are, Aunt
+Will, I saw a covey yesterday--"
+
+"Skip, please."
+
+"Ahem! Well, their servants came by last _Clansman_; or rather they
+didn't, because--"
+
+"Skip again. I know--too rough for her to put in--won't come till
+return trip. Go on, dear."
+
+"How you do bustle a fellow! They expected cooks and scullions. All
+the show, in fact, including a but--"
+
+"Oh! do skip!"
+
+"My dear aunt! you should have been a telegraph clerk. Well. Wrote for
+a machine to Carbost. Came along. Place shut up. Rick Halmar fishing
+sea pool. Saw signals of distress. Piloted 'em to harbour. Found
+Kirsty stacking peats. Lit the fire. Put on the kettle. Came home to
+tell his aunt. That is all, except that the factor is away to the Alan
+market and Kirsty has no English to speak of."
+
+"They have servants with them of course?"
+
+"A French maid. She is more solid than she looks. You see I had to
+help her out of the machine. She hadn't recovered the boat. They have
+been visiting about, and Mr. Wilson's man got left behind at
+Inverness, looking for lost luggage. Wired to say he would come on by
+the afternoon boat. Ha! ha! good joke, isn't it? Afternoon boat to
+Roederay. Now then, jump aboard! a penny all the way."
+
+Miss Willina's sympathetic soul saw no cause for mirth in the
+vision conjured up by her housewifely imagination. She put on the
+deer-stalker cap lying on the step beside her. It was a signal for
+action, since, within the home precincts, she dispensed with any head
+covering save the thick masses of dark hair, which were still her
+greatest pride.
+
+"I'll go over. Kirsty is an idiot, at best. She was six whole months
+learning the 'Happy Land' at Sunday-school.
+
+"Besides it's not far--then your uncle's official position."
+
+"Skip, please!" interrupted Rick, laughing. "You don't want excuses
+for being a trump. Come along."
+
+His aunt's blue eyes flashed and sparkled. "Oh! my dear! was she so
+pretty as all that? You won't be wanted! her husband is there, of
+course."
+
+"Aye! and her cousin, I think. At least, she called him Eustace."
+
+"Two of them! Then preserve us from a third man. Go you and fish like
+a Christian."
+
+"Leaving you to roam the moors alone, when I may be appointed to a
+ship tomorrow and not see you again for--don't laugh in that rude way,
+Aunt Will! Look here! Let's compromise. I'll go so far and fish
+Loch-na-buie till you return."
+
+They passed the slight hollow where Eval House sought a faint shelter,
+and the farm-yard whence, after depositing the sick gosling, Miss
+Willina had to escape at a run from a motley following of birds and
+beasts. So to the level stretches of moor and the full force of the
+blustering wind. A strange landscape to southern eyes. Earth, air, and
+water blent in a triple alliance so close as to destroy individuality.
+The sea lay landwards, the land seawards, and over both the nor'wester
+swept unrestrained, cresting green waves of heather as water with an
+edging of white foam or purple blossom. Were those hills, eastward
+across the Minch, or clouds? Was that level streak of light westwards
+the Atlantic or a glint of sky? Was the water showing at your feet
+between miniature cliffs of sphagnum moss salt or fresh? And did the
+land really sway before the wind? or was it only your footstep making
+the spongy soil rise and fall? This, however, was in the low ground
+eastward. Westward the rocks began to pile themselves gregariously in
+cairns, and the moorland rose gradually, so gradually that when its
+edge was reached you were surprised to find yourself so far above the
+shining plain of sea.
+
+Here on a promontory commanding a magnificent view, and also a perfect
+exposure to all the winds of heaven, stood the modern shooting-box of
+Roederay Lodge.
+
+Substantial enough for the nineteenth century, yet reminding one
+irresistibly of those Swiss ch�lets in boxes which are to be bought
+for a sixpence in the Lowther Arcade. The fault, no doubt, of its
+surroundings; above all, of a sound which seemed to monopolize the
+whole landscape,--the sound of the Atlantic rolling in upon two miles
+of shelving sand a little to the southward. A sound that went on night
+and day, day and night, without a pause. Rhythmically true to a
+second, not to be shut out by any device of man. The strongest must
+put up with it or go away. On this particular September day, with the
+keen bright nor'wester sending a cross sea round the point, its voice
+had a querulous ring in it very different from the roar which echoed
+for fifteen miles across the island when the Atlantic was in a
+southwesterly mood.
+
+Rick Halmar, however, being a sailor accustomed to the sea in all
+tempers, took little heed of its tone. He sat to leeward of a cairn
+which tradition said marked the grave of a Viking, and whittled away
+at a piece of wood he had found close by, the pretence of fishing
+having been set aside when Miss Willina's decided little figure
+disappeared from sight. He whittled with more than the sailor's
+ordinary dexterity; for his father had been a Norwegian sprung from a
+long line of ancestors who had whiled away the winter days when their
+ships were in dock with wood-carving. Not much else save that trick of
+the knife, a straight Norse nose, and a passion for the sea had Eric
+Halmar inherited from the father he had never seen. For within a year
+of that hasty marriage between the shipwrecked sailor and Miss
+Willina's younger sister, pretty little Mrs. Halmar was in Eval House
+once more, weeping and waiting. Weeping for her handsome husband;
+waiting for her child to be born. She wept even after the waiting was
+over, till consolation came in the shape of another husband; for she
+was not a person of great steadfastness, and even her land prejudice
+against the sea as a profession had given way before Miss Willina's
+stern common sense.
+
+"The laddie thinks of nothing else," said his aunt; "indeed, why
+should he, seeing he comes of pure Viking blood on the one side, and
+something of it on the other, if old tales be true? Send him to the
+navy; then if he is drowned, it will be decently in the Queen's
+uniform."
+
+So into the navy he went, and, having passed through Greenwich, was
+now awaiting orders at Eval; where he found a most congenial playmate
+in his aunt.
+
+His still beardless face dimpled with smiles as he worked. To begin
+with, the wood, which had evidently been used as a cow peg, was
+mahogany. In other words, it must have been stolen from the drift pile
+on which his uncle, by virtue of his official position, was supposed
+to keep an eye, since the logs which the Gulf Stream leaves in its
+course are Government property. This amused Rick, seeing that the mere
+suggestion of such nefarious possibilities was a sure bait to his
+uncle's anger. Then the subject he had elected to carve seemed to him
+amusing. It was a replica of a Numbo Jumbo he had seen amongst the
+Caribbees, and which had tickled his fancy by its lavish ugliness. So
+his knife being a perfect tool-chest of implements, he gouged and
+punched, chiselled and filed, until, as he stuck the pointed end of
+the peg into the ground again, a very creditable copy of a malignant
+god stood before him.
+
+"It's the best I've done yet," he said to himself; "that dodge of the
+bread-pellet eyes with the shot in the middle of them gives the old
+devil quite a live look."
+
+He was not yet twenty-one, and boy enough to be proud of the ingenuity
+which had converted some sandwich crumbs and the lead off a cast into
+a pair of evil eyes. Man enough, however, to whistle "Who is Sylvia?"
+as he leant back against the cairn, smiling at Numbo Jumbo and
+thinking of Lady Maud.
+
+"Rick! you bad boy!" cried his aunt's eager voice just as he was
+beginning to forget everything in drowsiness. "You promised you
+wouldn't when I threw the last into the Minch, and this is worse, ever
+so much worse!"
+
+"Better, you mean. It's the best I've done. Look at its eyes!" Miss
+Willina pretended to shudder as her hand, instinct with righteous
+vengeance, went out towards the idol.
+
+"You might leave it there till we go," pleaded Rick. "It really is the
+best I've done by a long way. Then you could take it home Aunt Will,
+and have a real _auto-da-fe_. It's more orthodox than drowning;
+besides, it will help the peats to a blaze when we go in."
+
+She burst out suddenly into an amused laugh. "Peats!" she echoed. "Ah,
+Rick! if you had only seen them at Roederay. The room full of smoke,
+that lovely girl--she is beautiful, my dear--full of apologies. They
+took so long to kindle, she said. 'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you
+mustn't miscall a peat fire. It is the most hospitable one in the
+world.' They were all lying crisscross like a crow's nest, and you
+should have seen her relief when I had them standing shoulder to
+shoulder and they flared up like a Highland regiment at the skirl of
+the pipes. A little thing that, Rick, but so it was in all. I laughed
+till I cried. That house full of telephones, electric bells, hot-water
+pipes--all the modern whims--the factor says people won't take a
+shooting unless there is a fixed bath nowadays. Well! downstairs
+Kirsty and Janet the herd; four willing hands and no knowledge. I tell
+you, Kirst is just terrified of the dampers. 'Will it be blowing down
+the house, Miss Willina?' she says."
+
+"Skip, please."
+
+The remark met with a scornful neglect.
+
+"Then upstairs those three with the knowledge but never a hand.
+Brains--at least two of them had, for the husband seemed fickless and
+no action. There they couldn't understand each other, and Mr. Wilson
+went about with his hand in his pocket, asking if a five-pound note
+would do any good.
+
+"My dear sir," said I, "neither five, nor ten, nor fifteen will help
+us if the _Clansman_ can't put in to-morrow. So let us pray for fine
+weather. Then I promised to lend them our cook, and we became great
+friends. Only, I don't know why, I felt all along as if something was
+going to happen; a sort of conviction things were going wrong; a kind
+of doubt whether we were in our right places; a description of--"
+
+Miss Macdonald's presentiments were apt to embrace all things visible
+and invisible, so Rick made haste with a remark.
+
+"And what did you think of the other man,--Eustace?"
+
+The shot was lucky. She paused and sat looking out over moor and sea
+with a mysterious expression of self-complacent sagacity.
+
+"Well, auntie? you think--"
+
+"Nothing, my dear. Gracious goody! past four o'clock! the chickens not
+fed, the cows out in the wind, the ducklings still at the stream, the
+whole blessed Noah's Ark."
+
+She had risen with the first word, and started off like a lapwing, so
+that, ere she finished, distance deadened her voice.
+
+"Wait! please wait," shouted Rick; "the animals went in two by two,
+remember!"
+
+It was of no avail; so he caught up his rod and ran after her, leaving
+the idol to fulfil Miss Willina's r�le of sphinx.
+
+It had been dark some hours before she dropped her knitting with a
+purposely dramatic start.
+
+"Oh, Rick! didn't I say I had a presentiment? Now I've gone and left
+that wicked idol on the _harp_--on the Alt na heac _harp_ of all
+places in the world, and you a descendant of the Vikings!"
+
+Rick, at work on an infant Samuel for his aunt's room, looked up
+cheerfully.
+
+"Well, what has that to do with it?"
+
+"What? why, everything. Don't you know the legend? Everything left on
+that _harp_ disappears. The dead take it as a tribute, and if they
+don't like it, they send it back to work evil to the living for a
+month and a day."
+
+"Willina!"
+
+Mr. John Macdonald was a silent man, but when he did speak, his
+meaning was clear. "Where the devil you get all that rubbish passes
+me. I've lived longer in this island than you, I've seen more of the
+people than you, yet I never heard such trash."
+
+He dived back into his book as suddenly as he had emerged from it, and
+there was a dead silence.
+
+"Never mind, auntie," whispered Rick sympathetically; for these
+outbreaks were almost the only things which upset Miss Willina's
+majesty. "I'll go first thing and bring Numbo Jumbo back to be burnt."
+
+"Pray do not trouble," she replied with an audible sniff. "If I am
+foolish, I am foolish. If it is rubbish, I suppose it is rubbish. Only
+if anything happens, perhaps you will be considerate enough to admit
+that I foretold it."
+
+Her hurt dignity, however, vanished before Rick Halmar's face, when he
+came in to breakfast next morning minus the idol.
+
+"Gone! Oh, Rick! you don't mean it isn't there?" she cried, in not
+displeased excitement. "John! _do_ you hear? It's gone, and you said
+it was rubbish. What do you say now?" Mr. Macdonald affected not to
+hear.
+
+"Yes, it's gone," said Rick. "Numbo Jumbo's on the loose. I expect,
+really, that some of the crofter's children have taken it for a doll."
+
+"It is all very well for your uncle to scoff, Eric, but the young
+should have more reverence for the wisdom of their elders," retorted
+his aunt severely.
+
+"But Aunt Will!--you don't really believe--"
+
+"I am not responsible for my beliefs to _you_, Eric, whatever you may
+be to _me_, and perhaps if you have no respect for me as your aunt,
+you will please to recollect that I am also your godmother. It all
+comes of disobedience. 'Thou shalt not make to thyself--'"
+
+Rick leant back in his chair and roared.
+
+"And if you can't even remember that," she went on, bristling with
+dignity, "you might recollect the punishment meted out to the children
+who mocked at the bald heads."
+
+She paused, her hand went up suddenly to her coils of hair, she tried
+hard to keep her countenance, failed, and Mr. Macdonald's deep-toned
+laughter made a bass to her treble and Rick's tenor. That, nine times
+out of ten, was the end of Miss Willina's wrath.
+
+
+
+
+                                  II
+
+
+"I found it," said Professor Endorwick, laying Numbo Jumbo on the
+drawing-room table at Roederay, "as I was coming over the moor this
+morning, in order, Lady Maud, to finish a delightful walking tour by a
+still more delightful visit. Oddly enough, I found something similar
+on the Gr�da Sands yesterday, but this, I fear, is genuine, and
+therefore quite uninteresting. I have it in my knapsack if you will
+allow me. There! from the fracture you will observe that it has formed
+part of a handle, probably the paddle of a war canoe, as this
+grotesque, which represents the savage conception of �te or Fate, is
+generally used for that purpose. It has drifted here, doubtless in the
+Gulf Stream, is therefore, as I said before, uninteresting, since most
+museums possess something of the sort. This, however, is very
+different. It is, you will again observe, of very recent construction.
+This, joined to the fact that I found it on a _harp_ or Viking's tomb
+famous in local tradition, points, to my mind, conclusively towards
+the survival amongst this primitive people of some, if not the
+original, cult of Fate. I need scarcely say that nothing is more
+difficult to track home than the faint footstep of a discredited
+belief, simply because rash inquiry results in prompt denial. I must
+therefore be careful, and I will ask you also, for the present at
+least, to preserve a kindly silence on my discovery."
+
+He looked round his company as if it were a full meeting of the
+British Association after lunch. As a matter of fact, it consisted of
+Lady Maud, her husband, and Eustace Gordon.
+
+They had barely finished breakfast when the professor, ignorant of
+their discomfort, walked in on them according to previous arrangement.
+Mr. Wilson, a slight, pleasant-looking man with a short beard covering
+his chin,--or want of chin,--had been moving restlessly from window to
+fireplace and back again during this speech, now drumming with his
+fingers on the sill, now transferring his attention to a fisherman's
+barometer on the mantelpiece, again slipping his hands to his pockets
+as if to force himself to quiet. Lady Maud, meanwhile, stood by the
+table looking at Numbo Jumbo and the despised original.
+
+"So you think the one with the eyes most interesting? and I don't."
+She raised the flotsam jetsam in her slender hands, scanning it more
+closely. "I wonder if you would give me this, professor," she said
+suddenly. "I've taken a great fancy to it."
+
+"My dear lady! I am only relieved to find you have not chosen the
+other," he replied with a gallant bow. "In either case, however, your
+desire is my law."
+
+"I believe that beast of a thing is going down again," muttered Mr.
+Wilson from the mantelpiece. "The _Clansman_ will never be able to
+come in to-morrow. It's too bad of Hooper, upon my soul it is."
+
+"My dear fellow," remonstrated Eustace, "anything will go down if it
+is continually thumped. It's a lovely day, a bit blowy, but it always
+blows on this coast. The warmth of the Gulf Stream."
+
+"Ah, confound the Gulf Stream!"
+
+Lady Maud turned to her husband in surprise.
+
+"What is the matter to-day, Edward? I didn't know a valet was such a
+hero to his master. Why, Josephine hasn't done a hand's turn since she
+caught sight of the steamer at Oban, but I don't complain."
+
+He muttered something about Hooper having been with him for years and
+stood looking gloomily out of the window with his back turned to
+everybody.
+
+Eustace Gordon gave a half-contemptuous shrug of his shoulders and a
+look at his cousin.
+
+"Come out and see the ghillies, Wilson," he said. "By the way, I sent
+to the inn for whiskey this morning; you see, professor, nothing can
+be done without it in these parts, so I hope you are not a total
+abstainer."
+
+The professor coughed gently. "I believe I am on principle. But having
+observed the fact you mention, I invariably carry a flask with me on
+my walking tours, merely, of course, as a means of acquiring
+information."
+
+Mr. Wilson burst into sudden boisterous laughter. "A good joke that.
+Come along! We all have a thirst for knowledge on us this morning."
+
+Lady Maud, left alone with the two carven images, took up the sea-waif
+and carried it off to her own sanctum, where she stuck it in the place
+of honour on the mantelshelf. Then, walking to the window, she looked
+out on pale green jostling waves and purple-green swaying heather.
+
+"I wonder when Louisa will turn up," she thought irrelevantly. "After
+all, she would have done better to come on with us and get it over,
+instead of waiting in the yacht for calmer weather. Suppose it were
+never to calm down?"
+
+She threw open the window with a reckless laugh. The fresh wind raced
+in, bellying the curtains like sails, catching her slender figure with
+such force that she was fain to cling to the sash as to a mast. So
+standing, with that background of surging sea, and one hand keeping
+her hair from her eyes, she looked as if she were adrift and searching
+the horizon for some familiar landmark.
+
+"Here's luck, and wissing you may all go back as you came, without any
+mistakes whatever."
+
+It was the spokesman ghillie from below, toasting the new tenant. She
+looked down to meet Eustace Gordon's amused eyes raised to hers; she
+smiled back at him, and, closing the window, returned to the
+fireplace. There, under the eye of fate personified in the war paddle,
+the phrase "go back as you came" struck her as a curious wish, perhaps
+even a somewhat infelicitous one, considering the discomfort of their
+arrival. Whereat she laughed, as she did at most things. Not all, for
+Lady Maud, despite many attempts, had never been able to get the whip
+hand of her conscience. She had to _m�nager_ it by driving round
+anything at which she thought it likely to shy. Her marriage to Mr.
+Wilson had been approached in this circuitous way until its manifest
+advantages completely obscured the central fact that she really loved
+her cousin Eustace. As yet repentance had not come to her; indeed, it
+came hardly to one so full of common sense and worldly wisdom as she
+was, but it came sometimes. Once as a child it had come suddenly in
+the sunlit solitary room into which she had been set apart for
+reflection, and she had knelt down to say na�vely, "Oh, God, I'm sorry
+now; but please don't make me sorry again, for I don't like it."
+
+That, briefly, was still her attitude towards the ideal. She did not
+love her husband, but she thought him sufficiently gentlemanlike and
+pleasing to save herself regret. She did, or rather she had, loved
+Eustace, but the idea of either of them permitting that past folly to
+interfere with the present they had deliberately chosen was absurd. To
+begin with, they would see little of each other, and when they did
+they would carefully avoid the renewal of any confidential relations;
+that was the great safety in these cases; for Lady Maud viewed the
+matter dispassionately, as a case.
+
+She came down to dinner that evening in a pale plush teagown, with
+long sleeves falling back from her bare arms, and smiled at
+everything. At the fact that she got on perfectly without Josephine's
+help; at the furtive way in which Kirsty set down the dinner, as if it
+were a bomb, and she in a hurry to escape the explosion; at her
+husband's continued anxiety about the weather; at the professor's
+profuse apologies for having intruded on them so inopportunely.
+
+"Not at all," she said gaily; "you will make a fourth at whist; Edward
+loves a rubber."
+
+"I can't play to-night," replied her husband. "I've a headache."
+
+"You do look a little flushed; perhaps it is the wind."
+
+"The wind!" he echoed petulantly; "of course it's the wind. Did you
+ever hear anything like it, Endorwick? I swear I never slept a wink
+last night, what with it and that confounded sea. It is enough to
+drive a fellow distracted."
+
+"You are as bad as Josephine," laughed his wife. "She has been in
+hysterics all day until Miss Macdonald's cook gave her a whole tumbler
+of hot whiskey and water. Since then she has been asleep."
+
+"We have all been trying that remedy," put in Eustace. "What with the
+men coming in, and the boats being engaged, we shall want more whiskey
+to-morrow, Wilson."
+
+"No, we shan't," retorted his host quickly; "I mean it's beastly
+stuff, you know. I never take anything but claret myself."
+
+"Awfully difficult to get decent claret nowadays," remarked Eustace
+with the ease, to him so delightfully new, of the rich man who
+quarrels with the supply and not the price. So the topic passed.
+
+"I'll have a cigar and go to bed; I didn't sleep a bit last night,"
+said Mr. Wilson shortly after they returned to the bare drawing-room,
+guiltless of all decoration, where Lady Maud's Parisian teagown looked
+so oddly out of place.
+
+"Take some hot whiskey and water," laughed his wife. "Won't you all go
+to the smoking-room? You must be tired, professor, after your long
+walk."
+
+But the learned man's social beliefs forbade cigars when a charming
+woman was the alternative, so he elected to remain. Being in reality
+much fatigued, however, he shortly afterwards gave way to the
+seductions of semi-darkness and an arm-chair. Semi-darkness because
+Kirsty's lamp smoking horribly, they preferred the light of the
+blazing peat fire. Outside the wind crooned round the house,--a
+lullaby to ears acquainted with its other notes, but to those
+accustomed to the stillness of the south, a banshee wail of coming
+trouble. With the firelight playing on the jet agraffes which held the
+cunning draperies on her gleaming bust and arms, Lady Maud was a
+picture few men could look on absolutely unmoved; but if Eustace
+Gordon felt the charm of her beauty, he gave no sign of it as yet.
+They sate there in the semi-darkness side by side, sometimes silent,
+sometimes talking indifferently of indifferent subjects. Alone, as
+utterly alone in the world as if they two were the only man and woman
+in it; for the barrier which luxury raises between one human being and
+another had given way. Supposing, for instance, the butler, instead of
+bobbing up and down on the Minch in the _Clansman_, had been at his
+post, would they have been sitting in semi-darkness uninterrupted by
+inroads for coffee cups, peats, and candles? Again, would any really
+high-class butler have permitted Professor Endorwick to snooze
+undisturbed in his chair, for two hours on end? Not that he did any
+harm by his slumbers; he might have awakened at any moment and joined
+unhesitatingly in the desultory talk of those two. True enough; yet
+when, at last, Eustace did rouse the learned man by lighting Lady
+Maud's candle, they both felt that the t�te-�-t�te had not left them
+quite as it found them; that in some of those half-indifferent
+ordinary remarks a virtue had gone out of them.
+
+She took the light from him, decidedly, with a refusal of his offer to
+pilot her along the dark passages; angry with herself for the very
+thought, she still felt that it would be wiser to say good-night here
+under the professor's eye; and as she went up the dim staircase, she
+paused to give a glance at the sea with a wonder as to when Louisa
+would find calm or courage enough to attempt the voyage. In a vague
+way, she recognized that things would go more comfortably if she were
+there. But beyond a sense of motion in the deep grey plane stretching
+away to a paler grey horizon, she could see nothing. The tide was
+flowing one way or another; that much was certain.
+
+She opened the door of her dressing-room softly, so as not to disturb
+her husband should he have fallen asleep. A great fire burnt bravely
+in her little sitting-room beyond, and something in the unusual
+silence of it all enhanced its comfort in her eyes. If Josephine had
+been awaiting her as usual, she could not have put off the task of
+undressing in favour of sheer idleness by the fire. Her husband was
+right; something in that rhythmical surge of the sea made one not
+exactly restless, but on the alert; disinclined for action, yet
+prepared for it. A foolish idea, since what could be going to happen
+to the small household already, for the most part, asleep? The
+professor would have taken the first opportunity of recommencing that
+snooze legitimately in his bed, and even Eustace,--why would her
+thoughts run on Eustace? Irritated at her own self-consciousness, she
+took up a book impatiently. It interested her, and, by and by, she
+turned for the second volume, to find that it must have been left in
+the travelling bag which Kirsty's ignorance had put in the bedroom.
+Shading the light carefully, she passed through the dressing-room, and
+so into the room beyond, giving a tentative glance at the bed as she
+entered, lest she should disturb the sleeper. It was empty. Her hand
+fell from the light; she looked round the room in surprise, and the
+next moment was on her knees beside a figure on the floor,--a figure
+which even in her first alarm brought back a horrible memory.
+
+"Edward! what is the matter? Are you ill?"
+
+Once, as a slip of a girl out blackberrying, she had come upon a tipsy
+tramp in a ditch; a beast of a man who had met her innocent
+benevolence by stumbling to his feet, pursuing her as far as his feet
+would carry him. This was her solitary personal experience of
+drunkenness, and something in her husband's look and attitude revived
+the dread which had remained with her ever since. Yet he might be
+ill--very, very ill--
+
+"Edward! what is it?"
+
+This time he raised an unsteady arm against the candle she held to his
+face, and she shrank back, shaking all over. Her first impulse was
+that of civilization,--to ring for help, at least for company. But
+what good would that do in an empty house? Josephine, until other
+women came to share her fears, had elected to sleep in a great
+chamber on the upper storey. Besides, what good would she be? Kirsty
+slept outside with the other farm servants. Eustace! no, no! not
+Eustace,--not now at any rate,--not till she was certain. There was
+the cook, of course; people in that rank of life were accustomed--oh,
+no! no! it was not possible. What a wretch she was to harbour such
+suspicions, when he might be ill--perhaps dying. With this protest in
+her mind, her rich draperies caught over her arm, the candle flaring,
+guttering, almost out in the swift search, she made her way to the
+unknown regions beyond the swing door, which separated work from
+leisure. Here? No! that must be the pantry. There? No! that was the
+gun-room. So, peering in at each room, she went along the stone
+passages till suddenly a door right in front of her opened, and
+Eustace Gordon came out, with a candle in his hand. He had been
+sitting up over the smoking-room fire, impelled, as she had been, to
+wakefulness by something, he knew not what.
+
+"Maud! Maud, my darling! What is it? What is the matter?"
+
+She forgot everything in the comfort of companionship as, still
+shaking with fear, she went swiftly to his side.
+
+"Edward. I think he is ill. Oh, Eustace, I am so frightened!"
+
+And he in his turn, taken utterly by surprise, seemed to forget
+everything save that the woman he loved passionately was there beside
+him. His thoughts had been so full of her, nothing but her, and now--
+
+"Oh, come! please come; he is ill. I know he is ill."
+
+"Yes! I am coming," he said with an effort at self-control. "Where is
+he--in your room?"
+
+Then, with his arm round her, they went back through the silent house
+together. Those two alone. Yet not, it seemed to her, so much alone as
+when they stood at last with that drunken figure lying on the floor
+between them. She knew the truth at once in his quick exclamation, and
+then everything under sun and stars seemed to slip away and leave them
+face to face. "Eustace and she." "Eustace and me." The low rush of the
+waves caught the refrain and repeated it ceaselessly.
+
+"Don't be alarmed; you had better go away."
+
+She heard the words as in a dream, scarcely recognizing the voice in
+its harsh passion. "Stay, he shall not remain here; not here in your
+room." Then she felt his hands grip hers, and the voice rang with
+fierce resentment.
+
+"Maud! Maud! that this should have come to you--to you of all people.
+By heaven, it is too much. I will not bear it."
+
+She laughed suddenly and broke from him. "You mean that he has
+taken too much whiskey. Well! plenty of men do that, and you others
+think--think none--none the worse." Then she broke down, flinging her
+arms across the bed by which she had been standing. "Oh, my God! what
+shall I do? what shall I do?"
+
+Her outburst calmed him.
+
+"Go into the other room, dear; I will call some one."
+
+She turned on him as she knelt like a wild animal at bay.
+
+"No! not the servants! no one shall know. I will not have it. Let me
+help. I am quite strong."
+
+"Do you think I'd let you touch him?" he burst out. "Go! I'll manage."
+
+She crept away, cowed by his vehemence, overcome by the desire to obey
+which subdues most women when the command is from one they love. Back
+to the fire she had left so short a time ago. It was dull now, but a
+touch sent the responsive flames leaping up the chimney. Would any
+amount of care restore that confidence in herself which but an hour
+ago had defied fate? Eustace and she--Eustace and me. What evil chance
+was this?
+
+She started from a maze of confused fear at his knock at her door.
+
+"A light, please. You have no bed here, and none of the other rooms
+are fit for you to-night; so I have brought this. I had to leave
+him--there."
+
+"Why should you trouble?" she asked drearily, with lack-lustre eyes on
+his burden of blankets and pillows. "I can so easily sit up; it must
+be near morning now."
+
+He gave her a look so full of passionate adoration that her eyes fell
+before it.
+
+"Do you think I am going to let you suffer one little bit--one atom of
+discomfort because of _him?_ No, that shall not be; you shall never
+suffer."
+
+"How can you help it?"
+
+"How can you ask? We may have made a mistake, Maud; perhaps we
+_hav'n't_ God knows. But if we have, why then--" He came over to where
+she was standing and took her hands in his. So they stood, those two
+alone, with nothing between them save a conscience which could be
+turned aside; every barrier raised by the world broken down by a
+strange fate, by a mere turn of the tide.
+
+"Good-night, dear," he said, stooping to kiss her.
+
+She made no reply, no protest; perhaps in her heart of hearts she knew
+that he said the truth. That if it was a mistake, why then--
+
+The waves caught up that refrain also, as she lay with wide, sleepless
+eyes on the little camp-bed with which his care had provided her. "It
+is a mistake--you shall not suffer--it is a mistake--you shall not
+suffer."
+
+
+
+
+                                 III
+
+
+When she woke next morning, a be-capped and be-aproned upper housemaid
+was bringing in her early cup of tea.
+
+"Yes, milady, we 'ave hall come. Mr. 'Ooper 'e 'ave come too, milady.
+Indeed, if it 'adn't bin for Mr. 'Ooper, we should 'ave bin picking
+hup cattle in that horful Minch till hevenin'; but 'e took it on
+'imself to tell the capting as master would willin' pay hextra for us
+to come as quick as might be. And thankful we was, milady, for some of
+us mightn't 'ave lived to see land."
+
+Jane looked as if she certainly would have been one of those to
+succumb, and Lady Maud gave a sigh of relief.
+
+"Tell Hooper to go to his master,--he wasn't very well last
+night,--and tell Josephine I shall breakfast in my room."
+
+"Mr. 'Ooper 'ave gone to master," replied Jane in a voice which
+implied that the reminder was unnecessary; "and if you please, milady,
+Capting Weeks 'e 'ave come too. We picked 'im up with some cattle in a
+boat from some place as begins with an 'Hoich.'"
+
+Lady Maud gave another sigh of relief. The sand-bags of civilization
+were a great protection after all; and if Captain Weeks had come,
+Eustace would go out shooting with him. That would give her a whole
+day to face the situation. Honestly, she thought far more of possible
+difficulties with him than with her husband. The shock had been
+terrible at the time, but perhaps, after all, it was an isolated
+offence. Heaps of men in society got drunk decently out of sight of
+their legal womenkind, and no one thought-- The recurrence of the
+phrase she had used the night before made her pause and hide her face
+in the pillow in sudden horror at herself and him. No! without going
+so far as that, one could still be rational. Edward was devoted to
+her, and if a wife by her influence made a better man of her husband,
+wherein lay the degradation? Last night--great heavens! what had come
+over her last night? She had been taken by surprise, placed in
+conditions which no one could possibly have foreseen, dragged by main
+force from every shelter. Her face burnt as she remembered, and yet
+how natural it had been! Natural and therefore absurd, ridiculous.
+To-day, however, was different, and so the little pencilled note from
+Eustace, which Josephine brought in with the breakfast, received no
+reply save a message to say she was perfectly well and hoped he would
+look after Captain Weeks, if Mr. Wilson was not able to go out. A bold
+parry, which made Eustace Gordon set his teeth.
+
+Yes! to-day was different; a new heaven and a new earth. The very
+house transformed; for when she came down to lunch, the drawing-room
+was full of tables, screens, photographs, and ferns, while in the
+dining-room the butler stood ready to remove the silver covers, and so
+let loose the pent-up energies of two footmen who, with bent heads,
+seemed waiting for some one to say grace. Mr. Gordon, the report ran,
+had taken Captain Weeks to the Carbost beat, and would not be back
+till late. Her ladyship was to open any telegram which might come, as
+it would relate to the yacht. Mr. Wilson had gone to shoot rock-pigeon
+with the head keeper. The professor was exploring, and begged her
+ladyship not to wait lunch for him. So said the butler gravely as he
+filled her glass. Through the window she could see the Atlantic
+guiltless of a white feather, and her own courage rose with the
+outlook. As she strolled about the heathery knolls after lunch, a boy
+on a pony appeared with the expected telegram. "Started, should be
+with you to-morrow." So that was an end of one trouble. Then Cynthia
+Strong and some others were to come by the next boat. Will Lockhart
+was cruising about the coast and might look in on them at any time.
+There would be no more solitude; not even to-day, since there across
+the moor came Miss Macdonald, attired for calling, and beside her that
+good-looking young sailor. Lady Maud liked boys, especially handsome
+ones with palpable adoration in their blue eyes.
+
+The professor, coming in very hot about tea-time, found the trio
+having it like children out in a bieldy bit by the burn, but with the
+butler solemnly presiding over the fire. A fire which gave James, the
+under footman, the hugest delight until his enjoyment was crushed out
+of him by his superior officer. For the butler knew his duty:
+afternoon tea was afternoon tea wherever her ladyship chose to take
+it; that is to say, a function at which a footman must preserve an
+impassive face. So poor James put on the sticks with funeral calm and
+burnt his fingers with great decorum.
+
+"Here is a lady, professor," said Lady Maud,--"Miss
+Macdonald--Professor Endorwick,--who will tell you everything you can
+possibly want to know about the island. She is a mine of useful
+information; at least I have found her so."
+
+That gracious voice, face, and manner had been a sort of rapture to
+young Rick Halmar for the last half hour, and when, after launching
+the others into conversation, she turned to him with the undefinable
+change in manner she could no more avoid in talking to men than the
+magnet can keep its influence, his heart gave quite a throb.
+
+"I didn't introduce you," she said, smiling, "because I only know your
+Christian name; and I'm not sure of that."
+
+"Rick! Rick Halmar," he replied with a blush which took him by
+surprise; for he was not as a rule self-conscious.
+
+"Rick?" she echoed curiously.
+
+"Eric. My father was a Norwegian. But it was a boshy name and the
+fellows on the _Britannia_ called me 'Little by Little'--after the
+book, you know."
+
+She laughed. "A very inappropriate name, Mr. Halmar. You must be six
+feet."
+
+He shook his head. "Five feet eleven and three-quarters. It's too big
+for a sailor. You get in the way of the ropes and things."
+
+"Not too big for a man--but listen! the professor is overcome already;
+how delightful!"
+
+In good sooth he was actually reduced to the position of listener, an
+isolated assertion of interest being all the speech allowed him as
+Miss Willina waxed eloquent over the crass superstitions of the
+islanders and her own select beliefs.
+
+Rick's face grew brimful of smiles.
+
+"Aunt Will is as bad as the best, herself. Why, the other day I carved
+out a sort of devil,--a thing they worship in the Caribbees,--and she
+was in quite a taking because it was left out on a _harp_,--that's a
+Viking's tomb, Lady Maud. She has some rigmarole about 'tribute to the
+dead,' their sending back things to work evil to the living. But, do
+you know, Lady Maud, it's awfully rum, but I couldn't find the thing
+when I went to look for it yesterday morning."
+
+"You couldn't find it? Mr. Halmar, don't speak loud; don't
+attract their attention by looking surprised! Was it--the devil, I
+mean--fearfully ugly?"
+
+"The best I ever made."
+
+"Had it white eyes with a shot stuck in them?"
+
+"Lady Maud! did you find it?"
+
+"Not I, but the professor did. It's a footstep of a discredited
+belief, and he is going to lecture on it to the British Association.
+Isn't it perfectly lovely? How we shall all laugh!"
+
+"But you will tell him, of course?"
+
+"Tell him! Why should I? These things are one of my chief joys in
+life."
+
+Rick Halmar winced. "But don't you see, Lady Maud, it's my fault more
+or less? I oughtn't to go carving devils and leaving them about. It
+isn't fair."
+
+She raised her eyebrows. "When you are older, Mr. Halmar, you won't be
+so eager to accept responsibility. By the way, does yours extend to
+another devil of the same sort which was found on Gr�da Sands?"
+
+He let his head drop into his hands in comic despair. "How one's sins
+_do_ find one out! It must be the one Aunt Will flung into the Minch.
+Everything comes round sooner or later to the sands. Has the professor
+got it too?"
+
+"No, Mr. Halmar. _I_ have it."
+
+"You! Oh, Lady Maud--I am sorry."
+
+"You well may be. I have put it into my own room because the professor
+declared it was genuine--a real savage fate. No--that isn't true, so
+don't distress yourself. I took a fancy to it. I have a habit of
+taking fancies to _things_ and to _people_; so there it shall remain."
+
+Rick's face lit up. "Let me make you a better one," he began.
+
+"I said, Mr. Halmar, that I took a fancy to _it_; and now, don't you
+think you should make your confession like a good boy?"
+
+He made it very prettily, but with a frank enjoyment of the mistake,
+which was infectious. So much so, that the chief sufferer, stimulated
+into unusual playfulness by Miss Willina's wit, actually went into the
+house for his discredited belief and brought it out for her to burn.
+
+So, with much laughter, they stood round the fire, causing poor James
+almost to burst under his efforts after dignity, till suddenly, with
+something between a chuckle and a cough, the butler himself gave way
+into the remark that "I 'adn't made a Guy Forks--_kck-kh-kh_--since 'e
+was a boy,--_kh-kh-kh_,--but if 'er ladyship pleased, Jeames could run
+round to the gun-room for some powder and 'e'd 'ave some squibs ready
+in no time."
+
+So Numbo Jumbo was burnt with all the honours, and the butler, going
+back for his own tea to the housekeeper's room, hummed, "Remember,
+remember, the fifth of November," until the cook, with a snort, asked
+wherever to goodness he had picked up such a vulgar ditty.
+
+"Now I have no doubt all you learned people think me very foolish,"
+said Miss Willina, drawing on her gloves with the air of one who has
+completed a good work; "but I really am immensely relieved in my mind.
+I had a presentiment about that devil of Rick's; besides, these old
+superstitions invariably have their origin in some fundamental fact or
+law of Nature. Don't you think so, professor?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, my dear madam; the Folklore Society--"
+
+But Miss Willina had a profound contempt for all societies and
+proclaimed it cheerfully. "Therefore, the only remaining thing to be
+done," she continued, shaking her head at Rick, "is to make
+restitution for that naughty boy's mischief. So, if you will walk over
+to Eval some day, Mr. Endorwick, I will give you that bone ring with
+the Runic inscription about which I was telling you."
+
+"My dear lady," cried the professor with greed in his eyes, "I really
+could not dream--"
+
+"I don't want to give it to _you_, of course," she went on frankly;
+"but my brother says it should be in a museum; so you can put 'Given
+by Miss Macdonald through Professor Endorwick' on the ticket. And, by
+the bye, it was found on Gr�da and Malcolm, Aig says."
+
+Meanwhile Lady Maud had turned to Rick with a quizzical smile. "Do you
+accept the responsibility of my fate, Mr. Halmar? or shall I have a
+private _auto-da-fe_ in my room?"
+
+The boy's face positively shone with pleasure as he took her hand to
+say goodbye.
+
+"I couldn't do anything that would bring you harm, I think--you are
+too--too beautiful." The absolute simplicity of the statement rendered
+it inoffensive, and Lady Maud laughed.
+
+"Take your nephew away, Miss Macdonald; he is paying me compliments."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," retorted the little lady, nodding her head,
+"and compliments are pleasant things; at least, I used to find them
+so."
+
+"Why employ the past tense, dear lady?" said the professor with a bow,
+as he shook hands, whereat Miss Willina declared that the only safety
+lay in flight; and Lady Maud, as she went back to the house, told
+herself once more that to-day was very different from yesterday. This
+background of _persiflage_, with just a serious touch here and there
+to help out the chiaro-oscuro, suited figures in modern dress.
+Tailor-made figures guiltless of a wrinkle and oblivious of vitality's
+claim for an uncrushed organ or two.
+
+"If her ladyship please," said Josephine, when the dressing bell
+brought her to her mistress' room, "Mr. 'Ooper, he desire a few word
+of milady."
+
+"Hooper! didn't they say he had gone with Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"Monsieur 'ave just return; Mr. Gordon also wid Capitaine Veek
+and--_Mon Dieu! quel gibier!_ Sall I bid him come?"
+
+Lady Maud, at the writing-table, rested her head on her hand, feeling
+a sudden need of courage. They had all come back, and some things must
+be faced before life could run smoothly once more. Eustace must be
+made to understand that there was to be no drifting, and her husband
+must consent to let her hand be on the tiller ropes.
+
+"Well, Hooper?"
+
+Rather a diffident-looking man; nervous too in his manner. "I am sorry
+to have to trouble your ladyship, but I think Dr. Haddon would wish
+it, under the circumstances. It is about master, your ladyship."
+
+Her heart gave a great throb. "Your master, Hooper? Well?"
+
+The diffident man, holding on to the doorknob as for support, cleared
+his throat. "It is a little difficult, my lady, and Mr. Gordon, when
+he spoke to me, was for saying nothing; but I have been considering
+the matter and I think Dr. Haddon--"
+
+"Who is Dr. Haddon?"
+
+"I was not quite sure if your ladyship knew--anything. But master was
+under Dr. Haddon for a time. It--it is for the liquor habit, my lady,
+and Dr. Haddon is most successful. He was most successful with master.
+Four years I have been with him since we came back from America, and
+never till last night--" he coughed slightly and paused. Lady Maud
+sate staring at him without a word.
+
+"I am very sorry, my lady. The other servants will tell you how
+distressed I was to be absent from my duty. It arose from my not
+understanding the porter's accent, my lady; but it will not occur
+again. I mean, my lady, that--ahem--nothing of the sort will occur
+again. So there is no need for--for distress or anxiety."
+
+"You mean that as long as--as you are with Mr. Wilson--" so far she
+managed in a cold hard voice; then came silence.
+
+"Just so, my lady--it is a question of influence. I undertake the
+entire responsibility. There is really no cause for alarm."
+
+"That--that will do, Hooper; you can go." Her one thought was to get
+rid of this man, this servant, who seemed to have reached out his
+common hand and touched her very soul. He paused, still with his hand
+on the door.
+
+"I beg pardon, my lady, but there is one thing. Dr. Haddon's system is
+based on influence. It does not allow any appeal to--ahem--to the
+moral sense. Therefore, if your ladyship could kindly treat the
+mistake of yesterday with silence, it would be better--for the system.
+Dr. Haddon ignores failure on principle, it--it is part of the system;
+and any interference may be dangerous. Therefore, if your ladyship--"
+
+"I quite understand. You can go."
+
+When she was left alone, she sate staring on at the door he had closed
+behind him. Behind whom? why the man who--oh! it was an impossible, an
+incredible, position! She had married her husband without caring for
+him, but she had married him also because she intended that he
+_should_ care for her. And now! What was he but a puppet, dependent
+on this man? She had not married Edward Wilson, but Wilson-cum-Haddon,
+-cum-Hooper. And Eustace knew it! Her husband, the possible father of
+her children! She had known all along that he was a weak man, but that
+the very possibility of his living decently lay in the will of another
+was hopeless, horrible degradation. She had often in society talked
+lightly of the part hypnotism was to play in the future regeneration
+of the world; but now that even a suspicion of it touched her inner
+life, it left her in wild revolt. When all was said and done, that man
+to whom they paid so many pounds a year was master of her fate. It
+should never be! Better, far better, that her husband should be drunk;
+and yet what right had she to interfere?
+
+"It will be too late to make milady _charmante_," suggested Josephine,
+coming in, reproachfully.
+
+She stood up hastily with clenched hands. Eustace should not see her
+degradation--she would show him--
+
+"There is plenty of time," she said coldly. "Put on my diamonds,
+Josephine--that dress is dull. They can wait if I am not ready."
+
+She was worth waiting for, and Mr. Wilson's weak face brightened as
+she went up to him with easy grace. "Did you have a good day, Edward?
+I saw Hooper for a moment, but I forgot to ask him about the sport."
+
+She failed in her object for all her bravado. The eyes she sought to
+blind saw too clearly.
+
+"So Louisa comes to-morrow," she said lightly, as, after keeping all
+the men, her husband included, at her feet during the evening, she
+rose to say good-night and let her hand linger purposely in her
+cousin's, so that he should see she did not care, that she was not
+afraid.
+
+"No!" he replied coldly; "I've had another wire. She came as far as
+Portree, and, hearing that the gathering is next week, decided to stay
+and show off her new dresses. She got about a ton of them in Paris if
+you remember, and women, even the best of them, love to show off."
+
+His tone roused her to reckless resentment by its assumption of
+knowledge and condemnation.
+
+"He does not look very sorry for his wife's decision, does he,
+professor?" she asked with a laugh.
+
+"My dear lady, how could he be sorry for anything, in his present
+position?"
+
+"Or I in mine?" she retorted, giving a little mock curtsey over the
+hand she still held.
+
+Eustace Gordon bit his lip, but said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+                                  IV
+
+
+"You look worried," said Will Lockhart; "the place doesn't suit you. I
+told you it wouldn't when we hid behind Charity. Is there anything
+really the matter?" his voice took a softer tone, "anything I could
+help you to set straight?"
+
+They were sitting by the fire in Lady Maud's little sitting-room,
+whither they had retired from the bustle inseparable from tea in the
+drawing-room when bad weather keeps even the sportsmen indoors. He
+said the truth; she looked worn and fagged, and her pose as she leant
+back in her easy-chair was one of listless fatigue.
+
+"Nonsense! There is nothing the matter; nothing more than the usual
+worries of a hostess in tiresome weather. To begin with, it has
+prevented your coming here till you can only spare us a miserable day
+on your way to rejoin the yacht. Then Louisa, after wasting a fine
+week over the Portree gathering, was detained there ten days by storm.
+Finally, just as she started for the Highlands one at Inverness _pour
+passer le temps_, it cleared up. Since then it has been what is called
+unsettled; most of all for poor Eustace, who never knows for two days
+together what is going to happen. Then Lady Liddell caught cold at a
+picnic, and Cynthia Strong, whom I invited for the professor,--a
+Girtonite you know, does mathematics and all that,--seems uncertain
+whether she doesn't prefer Arthur Weeks, a man who hasn't a penny and
+can't do a sum beyond the compound addition of his bills."
+
+"A catalogue of evils, certainly."
+
+"That isn't all. The professor, who would make her an excellent
+husband, being in that set and with a charming house too at Oxford,
+does nothing but go over to Eval House to see Miss Macdonald--you knew
+her once, I think--well, he looks on her as an encyclop�dia of
+discredited beliefs, a unique copy of an ancient work on folk-lore
+which the lucky finder is bound to purchase. Besides, she has a
+valuable collection--"
+
+"When I knew her," broke in Will Lockhart hotly, "she did not need any
+adventitious attractions; she was simply the loveliest--"
+
+Lady Maud's languid hands met in faint applause.
+
+"I thought that would draw you. So she was the _mauvais quart
+d'heure_. I am not really laughing, so don't be angry; only from the
+way she spoke of you--"
+
+"Did she speak of me?"
+
+"How can you ask? And women never speak of the men who have loved them
+in the same tone of voice they use for the dense, indiscriminating
+multitude who didn't."
+
+"Then Miss Macdonald's voice must change pretty often."
+
+"Ah! was that it? you were jealous."
+
+"Nothing so romantic. We quarrelled over some bread and butter--we
+were very young. Then circumstances favoured absence, so forgetfulness
+came, or at least indifference, absolute indifference." He paused for
+a moment. "And so the professor is there constantly, is he?"
+
+Lady Maud smiled behind the fan with which she screened her face from
+the fire.
+
+"He is there now, I expect. He went dune-hunting in the south this
+morning, and was to stop there for the night. Thought he might be
+late; besides, he must consult the encyclop�dia."
+
+Will Lockhart frowned. "This has made us drift from the point. Your
+husband, does he like the place?"
+
+"Apparently. And the servants are satisfied too, which is a great
+gain. They get all their work done for them by the natives. It is an
+immense relief to shift one's responsibilities to other folks'
+shoulders, isn't it?"
+
+He looked at her sharply. "There _is_ something the matter. Is it only
+other people's love-affairs? And what, for instance, of that handsome
+boy downstairs who does Sir Walter Raleigh's cloak for your Majesty's
+feet all day long?"
+
+Lady Maud leant forward eagerly, her whole face alight. "You mean
+Rick. Do you remember once, when you were very angry with me, saying I
+was enough to ruin any man in a week? It wasn't true, Big Bear. I
+couldn't spoil Rick Halmar."
+
+"Have you tried and failed?" he asked cynically.
+
+She shook her head and a soft half-smiling, half-tearful look came to
+her pretty eyes.
+
+"You don't know him, and I can't explain. Yet I tell you that I
+couldn't spoil one of that dear lad's happy days unless--" she broke
+off suddenly, raising her eyes to the image on the mantelshelf. "He
+carved that devil up there," she went on with the smile gaining on the
+tears. "The professor said it was a savage conception of fate, but it
+isn't. It is Rick Halmar's conception of my fate, and that--well, that
+hasn't much of the devil in it. Come! it is time I was returning to my
+duties as hostess."
+
+"Time for me to be going also," he replied, looking at his watch. "I
+have seven miles before me."
+
+"Not if you make use of the Eval ferryboat." She looked at him
+mischievously.
+
+"I do not intend to make use of it, even to oblige you, Lady Maud. I
+might meet the professor, and then there would be a petty-assault
+case."
+
+"Of course! How tiresome you are! I counted on your being here a week
+at least, and people can unmake ever so many quarrels in seven days."
+
+"Or make them. But the elements are too strong for you, Lady Maud. I
+told you so."
+
+Rick Halmar came up as, still smiling over the joke, they entered the
+drawing-room.
+
+"I'm so glad. I was afraid you might not come before I left, and I
+must go soon."
+
+"Then you can pilot Mr. Lockhart a little way. He has to walk over to
+Carbost Bay."
+
+"A good bit of the way, you mean," replied Rick, turning his bright
+face towards Will Lockhart's. "Our ferry is far the shortest; in fact,
+it's the only road, for the upper-end bridge gave way in the flood
+last night and the stream isn't fordable yet!"
+
+Lady Maud's eyebrows went up archly.
+
+"What a nuisance the elements are at times; aren't they, Mr.
+Lockhart?"
+
+"I should think so," assented Rick cheerfully. "Why, we have been
+trying to get to Eilean-a-fa-ash these three weeks--haven't we, Lady
+Maud?--without catching a fine day and a suitable tide on the hop
+together. The sea ford might have done last spring, but it was too
+rough for the ladies to return by boat, or else too wet. But the first
+fine day. That is it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Halmar!" cried Cynthia Strong from the window seat where
+Captain Weeks was blissfully useful over a skein of wool. "And please
+order the fine day soon, for I have to go by the next _Clansman_."
+
+"Then I shall go too," murmured the captain.
+
+"I suppose the birds will be getting rather wild by that time,"
+remarked the young lady tartly. Theoretically, she felt bound to
+despise her admirer and his occupations; practically, his murmurs made
+her heart beat.
+
+"Wild! Why, they lie like stones on this coast. Something to do with
+the Gulf Stream, I'm told, though I know nothing myself about these
+scientific things. But you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like chickens
+on the last day of the season."
+
+"And when is that?"
+
+Captain Weeks laughed,--the true man's laugh of surprised tolerance.
+"I thought you knew everything, Miss Strong; but I don't suppose they
+think it worth while to teach girls. It's the 10th of December for
+grouse, but partridges go on till the beginning of February, and
+there's no real close time for--" His voice fell to the confidential
+tone. Eustace Gordon had meanwhile joined the trio at the door.
+
+"Yes! let it be soon, please; for I may be going also. I've just
+heard, Maud, from Louisa, and the last idea is that I am to take the
+yacht, which she is sending here, round to Cowes, and that we are to
+start at once for less uncertain climes. The Mediterranean, most
+likely."
+
+"That is very--unexpected. But all my friends are flying south, like
+the swallows."
+
+"And I have to go furthest of all," said Rick ruefully. "I'm booked
+for the Pacific Station, as sure as fate."
+
+"Then you must send me home a real Numbo Jumbo if you come across
+one," she replied, smiling up into his eager boyish face with a
+confidence absolutely free from all alloy.
+
+"Won't I! and some of those jolly shells too; all the pretty things I
+can pick up."
+
+"Thank you, Rick; I like pretty things."
+
+He flushed with pleasure at her tone and words.
+
+"Well, good-bye," she said, turning to Will Lockhart. "I hope the
+elements won't be too strong for you."
+
+"Or for you."
+
+Confidence here also, but of a different sort,--the sort which can
+give a reason for the faith that is in it. It seemed, however, as if
+Lady Maud's wish was not to be fulfilled; for as Rick Halmar and his
+companion set off across the moor, the southwest wind, even at that
+distance from the shore, sent a shower of spindrift in their faces.
+
+"No leaving Carbost Bay for you tonight," shouted Rick against the
+wind. "You had better stay at our place. You used to know Aunt Will
+long ago, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, but I must get on. It may calm any moment, and the yacht sails
+as soon as possible."
+
+Nevertheless when, after scudding with the wind at their backs for two
+miles, they came upon the ferry, one glance showed even Will
+Lockhart's inexperienced eye that the cockleshell of a boat, bobbing
+up and down in the backwater, could never fight its way through that
+mad m�l�e of wind against tide in the middle of the narrow stream.
+Comparative calm reigned to one side in the inland loch, and to the
+other in the open sea; but here the waves leapt at each other in
+pyramids, sending jets of spray upwards with the very force of their
+meeting. A good thrower could easily have flung a stone across the
+channel; for all that, it was impassable till the tired tide should
+turn and join the wind in its race eastward. So, at any rate, said
+Rick, adding that his aunt would be delighted at a _contretemps_ which
+would procure her a visit from an old friend.
+
+Why Will Lockhart should have hesitated, when it was raining cats and
+dogs, and it was two-and-twenty years since he had parted in anger
+from the hot-headed, quick-tongued chit of eighteen, who was now, by
+all accounts, a brisk, contented woman of forty, is not easy of
+explanation. Perhaps the thought of Lady Maud's triumph rankled;
+perhaps, when all was said and done, he was not quite indifferent to
+that possible future with the professor. But he did hesitate for a
+moment. That early love-affair had strangely enough been his first and
+last: not because it was in itself absorbing, but because other things
+more absorbing than Love had stepped in to take possession of his
+life. For a year or two, no doubt, resentment had lingered, not very
+keenly felt, but sufficiently so to prevent other love-affairs. Then
+he had painted his first successful picture, and that had been an end
+of all things, save Art, and a rather unreal remembrance that he had
+loved and lost.
+
+However, common sense came to his aid, as it was bound to do in
+that drenching rain. And, after all, the professor was not in the
+well-remembered drawing-room whither Rick led him; neither was Miss
+Willina. Fortunately, perhaps, for her dignity, of which she was
+extremely tenacious, she had been in the potting-shed feeding a late
+brood of chickens presented to her that morning by an inexperienced
+young mother, who had preferred a bed of nettles behind the peat stack
+to the comforts of the hen-house nursery. So she had ample opportunity
+of seeing them pass up the ferry-path and of grasping the situation;
+to say nothing of smoothing her hair and washing her hands, before
+putting in an appearance; the which is a great support to most women
+in the crises of life. As a matter of fact, however, Miss Willina had
+never regarded this episode of her earliest years of conquest as one
+of supreme importance; perhaps some slight inkling that it really did
+mean more than she was prepared to admit was at the bottom of her
+deliberate want of romance on the subject. She had had many admirers,
+had them still for that matter; she was perfectly aware, for instance,
+of the professor's interest; but, for all that, she had never felt
+inclined to marry since those salad days when she had drowned her
+resentment in the knowledge that half the men who knew her were at her
+feet. Why should she marry? There was plenty of time and opportunity
+if she wished it; and then, when time passed, leaving her still Miss
+Macdonald, she told herself and every one else that it was of her own
+free will and pleasure. As it undoubtedly was. She scouted regrets,
+and only when the masterful current of her vitality slackened, as even
+hers had to do at times, did she wonder if that early love-affair had
+not been at the bottom of her cold-bloodedness.
+
+Will Lockhart did not think her much changed. The daintiness and
+wilfulness he chiefly remembered were still there, and it was like old
+times to hear her order him up with Rick, to "change his feet," and
+see the swift touch with which she rescued an antimacassar from
+annihilation when he sate down. And this want of change depressed him,
+by emphasizing the long years which he could not forget.
+
+There she was, much as he remembered her, and he--people told him also
+that he had changed but little. Yet in those old days it had seemed
+impossible to conceive of life apart, and here they were, both free,
+both unmarried, talking calmly, with a new generation for listener,
+about that past time. What had kept them separate except their own
+free will? Nothing! and yet had either of them deliberately
+anticipated this ending when they quarrelled over the bread and
+butter? And now she was thinking of the professor, or at any rate the
+professor was thinking of her. That was Lady Maud's account, and there
+was certainly a suspicion of consciousness when the learned man's name
+was mentioned; a palpable flush indeed, when a faint whistle overbore
+that of the wind, and she started from her chair.
+
+"Rick! it can't surely be Mr. Endorwick!"
+
+The blush made her look years younger, and Will Lockhart felt
+distinctly aggrieved at the fact.
+
+"By George, it is, though," replied her nephew, after a glance through
+the field-glasses which hung ready for the purpose on the window-knob.
+"There he is on the other side of the stream. He has hoisted the flag,
+and is blowing away at the whistle like fits. His umbrella's inside
+out, and his mackintosh floating on the breeze. Do look, Aunt Will.
+It's awfully comic."
+
+Miss Willina's face was a study of dignity and humour; the first
+prevailed. "Eric! I am surprised at your levity. The poor man will be
+drenched to the skin, and he so delicate; such a distinguished scholar
+too; we could ill afford to lose him."
+
+"Give me the glass," said Will Lockhart grimly. The sight of his
+supposed successor signalling for the impossible gave him a thrill of
+satisfaction; for he, at least, was on the right side of the stream.
+And then to the keen little creature at his side came a mood well
+remembered.
+
+"The born idiot! Any Christian would have stopped at the hotel even if
+he was wanting to come on. A fool for his pains! Ah! what's the use of
+blowing like a hooter with the wind and tide against you? Gracious
+goody! Rick, what's to be done? The gawk can't be left there like a
+windmill."
+
+The comparison was not inapt; for the professor, seeing them,
+doubtless, against the firelight within, was waving his arms
+frantically.
+
+"I'll go down and signal him to that bieldy bit behind the big rock.
+It's out of the wind anyhow, and the tide will be turning before he
+could walk back to shelter. And I'll stop in the boat-house; it will
+comfort him to see me smoking, especially if he has forgotten his
+matches. Besides, I must put new rowlocks to the four-oar. We'll want
+her, and the men too, if any one is to cross the stream tonight."
+
+"That's a nice boy," said Will Lockhart, putting down the glasses as
+Rick's figure on its way to the boat-house blocked out the professor's
+increasing despair. "Just about the age I was when--" He paused and
+looked at his companion.
+
+"Yes! You were twenty-one, and I was eighteen."
+
+They were standing close together, the firelight throwing their
+shadows out faintly against the growing darkness, but on their faces
+the dull autumn twilight lingered, blotting out all traces of the
+passage of time.
+
+He came a little nearer to her.
+
+"I wonder why we quarrelled?" he said argumentatively. "I don't mean
+what we quarrelled about. That was never very difficult to find, was
+it? But why did we quarrel finally that last time? I don't recollect
+that you were more wilful than usual."
+
+"No doubt you were more aggravating," she retorted quickly. "Do you
+wish to begin it all over again? I will if you've a mind to."
+
+"Begin what?"
+
+"The quarrel, of course."
+
+"No, thank you. There's the professor hauling down his flag; he has
+seen Rick, and acknowledged his defeat. Good man! Don't you think,
+Miss Macdonald, that it would be more comfortable by the fire than
+here at the window?"
+
+"More comfortable than the professor is, poor man. That is what you
+mean. How selfish all you men are, and then you expect me not to see
+through you!"
+
+"I don't think I ever was quite so _exigeant_ as that, was I? And, do
+you know, I rather wish you would just cast your eye over my innermost
+thoughts at the present moment. It would save me beating about the
+bush."
+
+Perhaps, despite her outward calm, she was a little excited; for she
+had taken up her knitting, half mechanically, and now the needles
+clashed fast and furious. He was leaning towards her, his elbows on
+his knees, his hands loosely clasped together, and something of his
+youth, not so much in its romance as in its imperious desire to know
+and understand, was in his face.
+
+"Miss Macdonald, I've no right to ask, but are you going to
+marry--that man on the other side?"
+
+She gave a little conscious laugh, half-nervous, half-gratified. "That
+is what you call beating about the bush, I suppose? Why--why should I
+marry anybody?"
+
+For the life of him he could not tell, save that in a vague way that
+dead past seemed so pitiful: because it was dead and past. "Why did we
+quarrel?" he repeated. "If the _Clansman_ hadn't come in unexpectedly
+that evening after her time, and so given me an opportunity of going
+off in the sulks, we should have made it up as usual. It seems such a
+little thing to come between us."
+
+She laid down her knitting and looked at him thoughtfully. A woman
+less truthful than Miss Willina might have allowed the inevitable
+satisfaction of being remembered to give an extra tinge of regret and
+romance to that past, which in sober fact had had little of either;
+but Miss Willina's sense of humour was of the rare kind which is not
+blunted by egotism.
+
+"Ridiculously little. In the novels--I read dozens of them in the
+winter--it is always something pathetic. A letter left in a blotting
+book, or a wrong initial on the envelope, or a false announcement of
+marriage. Something not to be foreseen or helped. Or if it isn't the
+fault of fate, they get brain fever and forget their own names. But
+we! We just quarrelled, and didn't care to make it up. It isn't in the
+least romantic, I'm afraid."
+
+"But we didn't forget," he said in the same argumentative tone. "At
+least I didn't."
+
+"Of course not. Does any one ever forget,--absolutely?" Her voice
+trembled slightly. The pathos of memory was not to be ignored
+entirely.
+
+"It seems such a pity--you and I leading such lonely lives."
+
+"Lonely? You should see my Noah's Ark."
+
+"Well! Don't scoff at me. I suppose it is absurd, but to-night
+somehow--"
+
+She interrupted him with a soft hand laid on his. "Don't, please
+don't. It is like children trying to pretend that their shadows on the
+wall are alive. But they are shadows; nothing but shadows, and the
+light which throws them--" she pointed to the window with a laugh that
+was half a sob. "Poor man! he ought to be extinguished by this time."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," he replied sadly, still holding her hand;
+"but it seems hard--the shadows were so pretty."
+
+"Not so pretty as the reality."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"That we have met and forgiven each other--without payment."
+
+"Aunt Will," shouted Rick, bursting into the room, "there's the
+professor in the front hall dripping like a drowned rat. I got the men
+and ferried him over on the first chance; now they are waiting for Mr.
+Lockhart."
+
+Miss Willina was on her feet in a moment. "Take him upstairs, Rick,
+and put him to bed--between the blankets. I'll come directly with
+gruel and mustard. And, Rick! give him a good scrub--all over--with
+the roughest--bath towel--you can find."
+
+The last directions were called up the stairs as she went into the
+hall to see Will Lockhart put on his mackintosh properly.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Macdonald. I'm not in the least envious of the
+professor's immediate future," he said with smiling eyes, but with
+vague regrets still at his heart. "I'm glad, though, he was at the
+other side of the stream to-night. I liked the shadows."
+
+"And the reality?" she asked quickly.
+
+He stooped and kissed the pretty little hand browned by sun and wind.
+"It is like the breath of your sea. The memory of it will help to blow
+away the cobwebs until I come back--in the summer."
+
+"The summer is over."
+
+"Not St. Martin's, and one often has a spell of fine weather late in
+the year when the earlier portions have been stormy."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+
+
+
+                                  V
+
+
+"Well, Hooper, what is it?"
+
+Lady Maud stood at bay once more, with that diffident-looking man at
+the door. Three weeks had passed since his first interview; only three
+weeks, and it seemed to her an eternity of fear and anxiety. But now
+the letters written in reply to hers had come from the American
+doctor, and she knew the worst. Mr. Wilson's case had at once been
+easy and difficult. Easy because of his singular lack of will power;
+difficult for the same reason, joined to a very bad ancestral record.
+So bad that his maternal uncle, from whom he had inherited his large
+fortune, being deeply resentful of the treatment his sister had
+endured from her drunken husband, had burdened his legacy with certain
+unusual conditions as to sobriety and control. Consequently, when,
+shortly after his release from the restraints of minority, the
+inherited tendency had shown itself in Mr. Wilson, he had voluntarily
+placed himself in Dr. Haddon's charge, urged to the step by his fear
+of pecuniary loss. That was, briefly, the whole story, save that he,
+Dr. Haddon, continued to have charge of the case and would be obliged
+if Lady Maud would co-operate with him in continuing a system which
+had hitherto been so successful, and which, he did not scruple to add,
+was Mr. Wilson's only chance of fulfilling the conditions under which
+he held his fortune. For himself, he believed there was no danger of a
+relapse; it might even be possible after some years to relax the
+supervision, and in any case he begged her to remember that the
+hereditary tendency must needs be weakened by a generation even of
+enforced sobriety. He had hoped that there might be no necessity for
+her to be made acquainted with these circumstances, as the whole
+affair had been dealt with in the strictest confidence, and the
+essence of his treatment lay in ignoring the difficulty; but now that
+the untoward event reported by Hooper had occurred, it was better she
+should clearly understand the position of affairs. Briefly, he was
+paid for keeping Mr. Wilson from losing a very large portion of his
+wealth. Apart from that, it was an interesting case. In regard to
+Hooper, he was thoroughly trustworthy and conscientious,--a most
+necessary thing when influence was easy to attain. At the same time,
+if Hooper failed to commend himself to Lady Maud, he could be
+replaced. In view of the heavy stake at issue, however, he would
+recommend extreme caution in making any change. As for his reasons for
+allowing Mr. Wilson to marry under the circumstances, they were
+manifold; and his belief in the system was so great that he felt
+confident Lady Maud would never find cause for blame in her husband's
+conduct. The letter, in its bald statement of fact, its assumption of
+a perfectly satisfactory state of affairs, carried with it a sort of
+cold comfort. And yet Lady Maud felt a wild revolt against it such as
+no verdict of disease or death would have aroused.
+
+Like most women who marry men to whom they are indifferent, she had
+looked forward, odd as it may seem, to having children who would give
+a zest to an otherwise insipid life. And now the mere possibility was
+a terror: not in pity for those who might come handicapped into the
+race, but from sheer physical horror that they should be his and hers.
+And this terror came uppermost in the first few minutes of shock.
+
+"I have heard from Dr. Haddon this morning, my lady. In future I am to
+take my orders from you; so I have come to ask for them."
+
+The disapproval in his tone was audible. She felt a rash, resentful
+desire to bid him go and leave her free, but the doctor's warning
+checked the words. What if she should have burdened her life for
+nothing,--she who had refused money again and again because it seemed
+vulgar to her fastidiousness? She might appeal to her husband as a
+man, chance her influence against the Hooper-Haddon system; but what
+if she failed? During those last three weeks she had silenced the
+heart which, despite all her efforts, would have its way, by
+protestations that she was only awaiting the doctor's reply, that by
+and by she would no longer consent to be this man's wife on these
+terms. To live on as if she knew nothing; to give neither help nor
+condemnation; to acquiesce without a word in a future which filled her
+with shame and horror.
+
+When she knew the facts, she would decide, and now she knew too much.
+
+"I have no orders," she said in a low voice; "no new ones; you can
+go." Then suddenly a thought flashed through her and she arrested him
+with a gesture.
+
+"Yes, my lady?"
+
+Still she was silent, one hand gripping the edge of the table, her
+breath coming fast. "I do not think--this place--is good for Mr.
+Wilson."
+
+"Indeed, your ladyship," broke in Hooper, relieved, "I have thought so
+myself,--the--the irregular habits in regard to spirits are trying."
+
+"I think he would be better away."
+
+"Exactly so, my lady; only I did not like--all the arrangements being,
+as it were, settled."
+
+Her voice had gained in steadiness by this time. "There need be no
+alteration. I should remain here, of course." She paused, and Hooper
+shifted uneasily. "Mr. Wilson had an invitation to Perthshire
+yesterday. I should _like_ him to accept it. Do you understand?"
+
+"But indeed, my lady, I cannot. To begin with, I am not allowed by Dr.
+Haddon--"
+
+She stopped him angrily. "If you cannot obey me, there are others--so
+Dr. Haddon says. I consider this place is bad for Mr. Wilson, and it
+is my wish he should leave it. Do you hear?"
+
+For the life of her, try after calmness as she would, entreaty and
+despair made her command falter. He must go--if only to give her time
+to think; time to settle what course she would choose.
+
+"If your ladyship takes the responsibility--in regard to Dr. Haddon, I
+mean."
+
+"I take it all--the responsibility for everything."
+
+"Then I will suggest it. I may not succeed; but I will do my best, and
+if I fail, your ladyship must remember that I was not engaged for such
+work."
+
+The grotesqueness of it all struck her sense of humour despite the
+turmoil of emotion in which she found herself.
+
+"Yes, yes!" she said impatiently; "I will remember it was not your
+place!"
+
+When he had gone, she stood for some time without moving, her hand
+still grasping the table, body and mind alike in a state of tension.
+Then her nerves seemed to slacken, the spirit to leave her. She walked
+listlessly towards the fire, and, leaning her arms on the mantelpiece,
+rested her head upon them. So standing, the little curls about her
+temples outlined themselves against the ugliness of Rick Halmar's
+devil.
+
+"It is not all my fault," she muttered with a sort of sob; "not all my
+fault, surely. I must have time. I must have time."
+
+The rest of the day was torture to her. She did not regret the sudden
+impulse which had decreed her husband's exile, if it could be managed,
+yet she dreaded to have him say the words which would proclaim the
+success of her treachery against him. He came over once to where she
+sate in the twilight pretending to read, and laid his hand
+affectionately on her shoulder. It was only some trivial remark he had
+to make, but she started so visibly that Eustace, watching her, as he
+had watched her every mood during those weeks, came to her afterwards
+with a frown.
+
+"What is the matter, Maud? Why should you keep me at arm's length?
+Surely I know too much for that already."
+
+"What do you know?" she asked with the recklessness which of late had
+crept into her manner.
+
+"I know you are unhappy. Do you remember what I told you that night?
+You shall not suffer."
+
+Her lips trembled, and she turned from him hastily to join a group
+gathered round the professor. He had come back from Eval House greatly
+depressed in spirits, and with a running cold in his head, which
+Cynthia Strong was treating with pulsatilla, as yet rather
+unsuccessfully; but it required time, she explained, when the first
+stages had been badly managed on the old methods. The group was
+engaged in examining the famous Rhine ring, with which gift,
+apparently, Miss Willina had tried to content the learned man; but
+even its possession failed to comfort him.
+
+"I have deciphered the inscription," he said gloomily. "It is,
+briefly, 'Order, Truth, Honesty.' The last word bears many side
+meanings, and perhaps Purity would be a better translation. All the
+terminations being feminine, it may be inferred that the ring was worn
+by a woman; possibly one of unusual worth. It may even have been a
+badge of virtue; a tribute paid by the community to merit, or by the
+lover to his beloved."
+
+If he had said a funeral memento to the dead, his voice could not have
+been more lugubrious.
+
+"How interesting!" murmured Cynthia Strong. "Even in those days the
+mental qualities were deemed superior to mere physical attractions."
+
+"I beg your pardon," retorted the professor quite tartly. "Order, as
+used here, means complete, perfect; according to our modern speech,
+beautiful. Truth has also a secondary meaning. A free, but at the same
+time accurate, translation would be 'Beautiful, constant, chaste.'"
+
+Rick Halmar was twisting the ring about in his strong deft hands. "I
+expect some beggar gave it to his wife," he said cheerfully. "It must
+have been just as jolly then as now to have somebody to stick by you
+through thick and thin. To have the dinner ready, and not swear if you
+hadn't done what you ought to have done. Not brought in enough fish
+for the kids, for instance; though how they ever caught any with those
+bone hooks, I can't think. I couldn't."
+
+"You must remember the great incentive of hunger," remarked the
+professor in the same tone. "Besides, in those days dexterity in the
+chase was the master key to a woman's affections."
+
+"I say, Weeks, old man! why weren't you born then?" cried Rick,
+happily unconscious of all complications.
+
+"Never had any luck," muttered the other, "except with the birds."
+
+"Luck! I like that! You call it luck when you never miss; I assure
+you, Miss Strong," he continued, going up to where the despondent
+captain was standing, and addressing the nearest lady, "I was out with
+him yesterday, and he made me feel such a duffer. The prettiest
+shooting, and then he calls it luck!"
+
+Cynthia Strong looked from one to the other of those two vigorous
+young faces before her, and then at the professor's pale one. A cold
+in the head is not becoming, and she sighed.
+
+Rick, with the ring still in his possession, returned to Lady Maud.
+
+"Isn't it quaint?" he said. "Don't you wish I could find another?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it would be yours, of course. How small it looks! I wonder if
+it would fit you."
+
+"Miss Macdonald found it too large for her," remarked the professor,
+still more gloomily; "but it would be interesting, Lady Maud, to try
+whether it points to any improvement or deterioration--physical, of
+course--in the race."
+
+"Perhaps you ladies would not mind experimenting 'Cinderella and the
+little glass slipper,'" laughed Eustace Gordon. "What is to be the
+prize, Endorwick--the ring?"
+
+"My dear sir," gasped the professor, horrified for once out of his
+gallantry, "it's unique--positively unique."
+
+"I'll tell you what," put in Rick eagerly, "if the professor will lend
+it to me for a couple of days, I'll copy it in silver. A florin would
+make it, and the inscriptions only scratched on. So now, then, ladies,
+if you please. Weeks, you do herald. Lady Maud, may we use the banner
+screen as a tabard?"
+
+"What a boy that is!" said fat Lady Liddell to her next-door
+neighbour. "I've been here a fortnight, and never saw him out of
+temper or out of spirits. So different from most young people
+nowadays, who won't take the trouble to enjoy themselves."
+
+"I knew it wouldn't go on anybody's finger but yours," said Rick with
+joyous confidence to his goddess when the competition was over.
+"Perhaps it wasn't quite fair, because I'd seen Aunt Will try it on so
+often, and her hands are tiny."
+
+Lady Maud shook her head gravely. "I'm afraid it wasn't quite fair;
+but you must make me the ring, for all that."
+
+"Of course I'll make it!"
+
+She put her hand on his suddenly. "Don't, Rick! don't! I mean"--she
+paused, looking at him curiously--"you may make it if you like, Rick;
+but I won't promise to wear it--always."
+
+
+
+
+                                  VI
+
+
+"We ought to have gone over to-day," said Eustace Gordon, looking out
+to where the low sandy line of Eilean-a-fa-ash lay like a golden clasp
+between the two headlands. The northern one bold, rocky, heathery; the
+southern, a mere spit of bent-covered shingle, curving hornlike from
+the great sweep of the Gr�da Sands beyond. It was sunset,--a cloudless
+sunset. Sky, and sea, and sand, bathed in a golden flood of light;
+only the shallow stretches of water left behind by the retreating tide
+glowing iridescent here and there like jewels. Far away, almost beyond
+sight, an edge of foam keeping time to a whispering cadence told where
+the Atlantic was hushing the shore to sleep.
+
+"Yes!" he went on lazily. "We ought, but we didn't. That fellow Weeks
+is always on the slay."
+
+They were seated, a party of five,--for the professor still lingered
+in the grip of cold,--on the base of the northern headland. There,
+amongst the rocks and heather, Lady Maud and Cynthia Strong had been
+making tea for the shooters. A brace of setters lay panting beside the
+game-bags; a faint whiff of smoke from behind a boulder told that the
+ghillies were enjoying themselves on their master's tobacco--sure sign
+of a good day's sport.
+
+"Gorgeous weather," continued the same contented voice, "a whole week
+of it; simply idyllic."
+
+"Ever since Mr. Wilson and the others left," assented Rick Halmar.
+"Pity they went, isn't it?"
+
+"Mr. Wilson had to go," put in Lady Maud. "The telegram from the works
+was urgent, and then the Collinghams' yacht happening to come in the
+same day made it so convenient. Quite a coincidence; one of those
+things no one could have foreseen." She spoke impatiently, almost in
+an aggrieved tone; and Eustace, as he lay on his back staring up into
+the sky, smiled to himself.
+
+"It is very curious how such things happen," remarked Cynthia Strong;
+"but that they are comparatively common is indubitable. The very
+proverbs in our language prove it." In the professor's absence she was
+apt to assume the mantle of his manner in order to annihilate poor
+Captain Weeks, in which object she generally succeeded. On this
+occasion, however, emboldened by a recent reception of some golden
+plovers' wings, for which her new tweed hat had been waiting, he
+ventured to put in his oar. "The wish is father to the thought, for
+instance."
+
+"Nothing of the kind--" began Miss Strong scornfully; but Lady Maud
+rose hastily and, standing a little apart, looked at Eilean-a-fa-ash,
+her hand shading her eyes.
+
+"Let us settle to go there to-morrow without fail," she said as if to
+change the subject.
+
+"Not to-morrow, please," broke in Rick eagerly. "To-morrow is Fast
+Day, and none of the ghillies will do a hand's turn. Besides, I have
+to drive Aunt Will to the preaching, as uncle won't. Put it off till
+the next day, Lady Maud. To begin with, it's my birthday, and then the
+tides are full spring. So we could come back by the sea ford. It is
+worth doing; nearly two miles with quicksands on either side,
+especially to the south."
+
+"Very well, the day after to-morrow; that is, Friday certain; or some
+other coincidence will be carrying off the rest of my party." Still
+with her hand shading her eyes, she remained looking seawards, much in
+the same attitude as she had stood at the window a month before. This
+time her slight figure showed against the gold of sea and sky.
+
+"What is that," she asked, "like a mast--yonder and from the
+headland?"
+
+Rick, busy as usual with his knife, did not pause to look. "It _is_ a
+mast, Lady Maud. There is a wreck just to the south. Went ashore ever
+so long ago, but it is useful still as a sign-post. Up to that spar
+the sand is pretty safe--most times. Beyond that--by George! you
+should see it when the tide is coming in."
+
+"Oh! I don't mean the spar close in--yonder, far away."
+
+He came and stood by her. "A yacht, I think, making, I should say, for
+Carbost. Come to carry some of us away, maybe."
+
+"If it's for me," remarked Eustace, joining them, "I don't intend to
+go. This is too good a time to be cut short. I haven't had such a good
+one since those old days at Lynmouth, Maud! And you too! Why, you are
+looking twice as well as you did--a week ago." There was meaning in
+his words; more in his eyes.
+
+"Fine weather always agrees with me," she replied hastily. "Come,
+Rick, let us pick up the tea things and start home."
+
+Yet in her heart of hearts she knew that Eustace was right. That past
+week had been a paradise of relief, and now it came perilously near to
+the time when the problem of her life must be faced. She had driven
+round it so far, had turned back deliberately when she found it
+barring the road, had claimed time to understand the position. What
+had she done towards a decision? Nothing! Nothing save bask in the
+immediate freedom; rejoice like any child in the fine weather, in
+Rick's open adoration, in her cousin's constant companionship.
+
+As she and the boy walked homewards together, these thoughts came
+again and again, whilst her nervous fingers busied themselves
+mechanically with the silver ring which he had made for her; a growing
+habit of which she was not aware.
+
+"Does it hurt you?" he asked tenderly. "I can easily alter it, if it
+does."
+
+She shook her head with a faint smile.
+
+"But I have seen you do that so often lately," he persisted; "perhaps
+the inside is not quite smooth. Give it me, please, and I will set it
+right by Friday."
+
+"Don't trouble. If it hurts, I can always take it off; can't I, dear?"
+There was a sudden passion in her tone, a kind of pitiful reproach in
+her eyes. Rick looked at her, perturbed.
+
+"But if it hurts--" he began.
+
+She put out her pretty hand and laid it on his, almost with a
+protecting gesture. "Nothing you could do would hurt me, Rick. You
+said so the first time we met, and it is true. If it hurts, it is my
+own fault."
+
+"That doesn't make any difference," he replied stoutly. "Let me have
+it, please."
+
+"Not to-day--on Friday, perhaps; _if it hurts_."
+
+They were standing where the cross-path branched to Eval, waiting for
+the others to come up; for Rick's way lay across the moor and she
+would be left alone.
+
+"I believe it does hurt now," he said, still dissatisfied, "and I know
+I could set it right. Do let me try."
+
+"How serious you are!" she cried with a sudden change of mood. "See! I
+promise to give it back on Friday if it hurts. It shall be my birthday
+present. There!"
+
+"All right. I'll keep it for yours; then we shall be quits," he said,
+laughing.
+
+When he had left them, Eustace took his place, and Cynthia Strong and
+Captain Weeks were certainly the happier for the change. Lady Maud,
+likewise, to judge by her light laughter.
+
+Fast Day rose brilliantly. The clear, crisp sunshine poured in through
+the dining-room windows, when, coming down to breakfast, she found her
+cousin there, alone.
+
+"Another lovely day," she said gaily.
+
+"The last for me," he replied. "That was the yacht yesterday. It has
+anchored below the sands, and the captain has strict orders from
+Louisa to bring me off dead or alive to-night." He laughed, but there
+was a bitter look on his face as he tossed a crumpled letter towards
+her. "Catch! that's my warrant of execution."
+
+Not a very nice letter, but a reasonable one in its way. The weather
+was to blame, of course; still, she had asked him to join her many
+times and he had not joined her. He had been a month and more at
+Roederay and now the equinoctial gales were over, she meant to be off
+southwards. If he could not make use of the yacht, he must send it
+round to Cowes and make his own arrangements. For her part, she
+intended to start for the Mediterranean in ten days. Not the sort of
+letter to be disregarded by a husband dependent on the writer for all
+save a very moderate settlement.
+
+"I've told them to have the boat ready at the Gr�da point at five this
+afternoon to take me on board. Perhaps it is better so. This sort of
+thing couldn't have gone on much longer."
+
+She was silent, and the professor, bursting in, ended the t�te-�-t�te.
+
+"What a land, or perhaps I should say sea, of surprises this is, to be
+sure!" he exclaimed. "The _Clansman_, I am informed by the factor,
+whom I met on his way to preaching, will anticipate her time by three
+whole days, owing to this Fast and some local market. She takes
+Carbost on the out instead of the in trip, and is due to-night, some
+time between seven and two in the morning. So I am afraid, my dear
+lady, that my delightful visit must come to a somewhat abrupt
+conclusion. I propose, therefore, going over--"
+
+"To Eval House," suggested Eustace.
+
+"No-o. To the hotel at dusk, so as to be on the spot."
+
+Lady Maud paled visibly. "And Cynthia! of course she and Captain Weeks
+will go too. Ah! what a sudden breakup of our pleasant party!"
+
+"You had better come with us, dear lady, and so reduce our regrets to
+a minimum," cried the professor gallantly.
+
+But the compliment fell flat. That was the fate of most remarks during
+breakfast, so that conversation dwindled to excerpts from Bradshaw's
+guide. Captain Weeks, who was generally a stand-by of placid good
+nature, was peculiarly low. He had made up his mind, come what might,
+to try his fate with Cynthia Strong before leaving, and now, though
+still determined, he felt hustled. She, in her turn, knew she had
+shilly-shallied in a way unworthy of a Girton girl until her
+opportunities of bringing the professor to book had dwindled to three
+days; two of them to be spent at sea, where she could not be sure of
+herself or him. As for Eustace and Maud, their r�le in the comedy of
+Life had been touched with tragedy for some time past. They felt dimly
+that the crisis had come.
+
+"We have never been to Eilean-a-fa-ash, after all," said Cynthia,
+pausing at the window on her way to pack, and looking regretfully to
+where the island lay out in the blue sea.
+
+"I thought we shouldn't," murmured Lady Maud in a low voice; "the
+Island of Rest is not for us."
+
+"It has been within reach all the time. It is so still," replied
+Eustace in the same tone.
+
+"We might have gone this morning if it hadn't been Fast Day,"
+continued Cynthia, aggrieved. "Couldn't we bribe somebody? I want to
+go awfully, and so does the professor."
+
+"My failure to do so will be the only regret which can possibly mingle
+with my memories of Roederay."
+
+"Can't think why you all want to see it," remarked the captain,
+frowning at the professor's complimentary bows. "I went over one
+day--yes, I did, Miss Strong--to shoot seals. Didn't get any--worse
+luck! But it wasn't a bit pretty. Sand and bones and a stone coffin or
+two. The ghillie told me, too, that sometimes, after a north wind, it
+was awfully grim. The sand blows off, don't you know, and leaves
+skeletons and things. Not at all the place for ladies, don't you
+know."
+
+"I'm sorry to be obliged to differ," retorted Cynthia sharply. "In my
+opinion, there are no places where a woman should not be."
+
+"Nihil continget quod non ornavit," paraphrased the professor.
+
+The captain's head held itself very high. "Perhaps I am wrong, but I
+don't think so. However, as you wish to see it, Miss Strong, I shall
+be delighted to row you over in the small boat. Only we must start at
+slack tide; that is, about three in the afternoon."
+
+"Too late, I'm afraid," replied the young lady disconsolately. "We
+ought to be starting for the hotel before six; oughtn't we, Maud?"
+
+"Oh, we could manage it," he went on, seeing in this plan the chance
+of the t�te-�-t�te on which his mind was set. "If the wagonette were
+to pick us up at the cross-roads, we should have heaps of time. It
+would only be starting two hours earlier,--before the others, I mean."
+
+"What do you say, professor?" asked Cynthia sweetly.
+
+Arthur Weeks ground his teeth, and turned away with a murmur about the
+boat being heavy.
+
+"But the professor will row, of course. Every one rows at Oxford.
+Indeed, I, for one, think the Oxford style is the best in the world."
+
+"Then perhaps you will not require my aid. I only learnt off the coast
+of Cornwall."
+
+Cynthia looked at her usually docile adorer in amaze; she did not
+understand that the big man had for once thought it worth while to
+make up his mind. "But we couldn't go without you," she pleaded quite
+meekly. "You see, you have been there before. Ah, no! we couldn't go
+without you."
+
+"If I can be of any use--" said the captain magnificently, and the
+sight of his aggrieved but courteous dignity gave Cynthia quite a
+pang.
+
+So it was arranged that, about slack tide, he and the professor should
+row to Eilean-a-fa-ash from the boat-house on the north headland, and
+afterwards, taking advantage of the full tide and southerly current,
+slip down the coast across the sands to meet the wagonette. Eustace
+and Maud proposed to start about the same time for Eval House, so that
+he might say good-bye to Miss Willina before joining the yacht's boat
+at Gr�da point, whence the carriage, on its return journey, would take
+Lady Maud back to Roederay.
+
+A sombre silence had lain between these two all day, and even when
+they were left alone on the terrace watching the others disappear
+shorewards, they said nothing for a time. A great stillness seemed to
+be in the very air. Not a breath on the water, not a sound on the
+moor, not a cloud on the sky. The very house seemed asleep; most of
+the servants away for edification or amusement at the preaching, miles
+to the south, amongst the peat bogs and heather, singing psalms and
+eating peppermint drops, praising the Creator and flirting with the
+creature.
+
+The silence must have reminded Eustace of this fact, for at last he
+turned to his companion hastily. "They won't be at Eval, so there is
+no use going. Come, Maud! It is the last time we shall be together, I
+suppose. Come."
+
+It was not much to grant, she thought, when she might never see him
+again. So they went out together over the moors, down by the little
+pools where the water showed their shadows, blended one into the
+other, upon the cairns where they sate together, looking out over the
+sea. Together, always together, Eustace and she, as it had been at the
+beginning. And this was the end, the very end.
+
+Meanwhile the trio in the boat set forth gaily; the professor very
+straight in the back, and with no little style giving the stroke,
+whilst Arthur Weeks, gloomily polite, paddled in the bows, debarred
+from even a fair sight of his beloved. The full flood-tide lapped at
+the furthermost scallop of seaweed on the shingly shore, and touched
+the sea-pinks cresting the rocks.
+
+"Couldn't you pull a leetle harder?" suggested the captain drily, when
+the professor paused in a long sentence to take breath. "I don't want
+to hustle anybody, but we have only just got time to manage it. We are
+making a good deal of leeway, and the channel north is a bit
+dangerous."
+
+Cynthia glanced nervously towards the Pole. "Oh, yes! please, Mr.
+Endorwick, pull harder. We can talk when we get to the island."
+
+Easier said than done. The perspiration poured down the professor's
+face, and bow kept her head straight as a die; yet still the boat
+failed to respond.
+
+As they crept along slowly, the channel between the headlands and the
+island began to open up, showing the still, oily water which tells of
+swift current.
+
+"We are too far north," said the captain, resting on his oar a moment.
+"The tide can't have been quite slack when we started. However, it
+doesn't matter; for the current here will take us south in no time."
+
+The professor pausing too, they drifted idly.
+
+"That's the landing-place, Miss Strong," went on the speaker. "Yonder,
+where the bents almost touch the water, and that square thing behind
+is a stone cof--" he paused abruptly. "Why, what the devil! we're
+drifting north--due north. By George, we are, though."
+
+In good sooth they were--drifting north like a feather.
+
+"North! impossible--the current runs south at flood. Stay--by Heaven,
+I remember--Ronald said something about a change at the equinox.
+Quick, man alive. Pull, pull hard! Once she gets beyond those rocks,
+we will have the dickens and all to keep her out of the eddy. It runs
+like a race--higher up--amongst sunken--rocks."
+
+The last words came in jerks as he set all his strength to the oar.
+The boat spun round with the point of the professor's oar as axis;
+spun round, drifting as it span.
+
+"Damn it all!" shouted the man of war busy on the rowlocks. "I beg
+your pardon, Miss Strong. Here, man, quick, give me the oar--go
+forward--lie down in the bows and keep her keel stiff. Now then,
+Cynthia, don't scream, there's a good girl--there's no danger as yet.
+Lie down too--then you won't see anything."
+
+She did lie down ignominiously. Right down at his feet, feeling
+that she would be content to enter Paradise clinging to this man's
+coat-tails if only that entry was not premature. The whole world, to
+her, lay in the strength of those arms, and when, meeting her piteous
+eyes, his face relaxed to something like a smile, and he gasped, "All
+right--getting along--nicely," she felt once, and for all, that she
+loved his little finger better than the whole of that abject figure in
+the bows.
+
+So she crouched, lost in a sort of terrified reliance on him, till
+with a queer little sound, half sob, half laugh, he slackened, and
+without a pause proceeded to retransfer a pair of rowlocks to the
+bows.
+
+"Now then--professor--if you please--sorry to have--been so
+abrupt--but--one manages better sculling--when there's no rudder." The
+breaks were caused by his being out of breath. Otherwise he was full
+of dignity, and Cynthia Strong broke down suddenly into subdued tears.
+
+"You had better lie still," he said. "See--here's my coat." He fumbled
+it into a pillow with his left hand, as he went on rowing with his
+right. "Raise your head, please, so;" and, as he bent over her, he
+whispered, "Don't cry, dear, it's all over now."
+
+What Cynthia Strong did to the hand so near her lips is a dead secret
+between those two. The captain's fine flush was doubtless due to his
+previous exertions, but why a pillow should have caused a rush of
+blood to Cynthia's terror-blanched face, remains a mystery.
+
+"Don't work so hard, professor!" cried the former gaily. "You
+are pulling me round, and we have to get our head towards home.
+Eilean-a-fa-ash is out of the question; besides, Miss Strong will be
+all the better for a cup of tea. This sort of thing isn't fit for
+women."
+
+And nobody denied it.
+
+
+
+
+                                 VII
+
+
+A man and a woman looking seawards from Gr�da point. To the north, the
+long curve of sands hidden by the flood-tide. A curve ending in the
+low line of Eilean-a-fa-ash, which, viewed from here, seemed as if it
+were joined to the mainland. Beyond, the northern headland, whence
+Roederay Lodge stood out against the sky. To the south, a coast broken
+into little points and bays, with the slender masts of a yacht
+standing above a near promontory.
+
+To the west, a spit of rocks running out into the Atlantic, which once
+more lay like a golden garment stretching far as the eye could reach
+on either hand. At their feet, a little boat swaying gently against a
+bare ledge of rock; for the tide was at the full.
+
+"Do come," said the man; "you haven't really seen the yacht, and we
+can't possibly miss the returning wagonette. I'll send a man to watch,
+if you like; then there can be no mistake."
+
+He did not look at her, but his voice was instinct with passionate
+entreaty.
+
+"But the men may not be here till late." Lady Maud did not look at him
+either, yet the same repressed emotion rang in her tone.
+
+"I can row you. We have only to paddle round those rocks, and the
+current will take us right on to the yacht."
+
+"But the men?"
+
+"Lazy beggars! let them swim. Besides, they should have been here long
+ago; it is past five."
+
+"Half-past. They have been here and put the stores in the boat."
+
+"It is we who are late."
+
+He moved a step closer, impatiently. "What have the men to do with it,
+Maud? Don't--don't be childish! What are you afraid of--not of me,
+surely?"
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"I am afraid of nothing," she said lightly. "Come, it will be pleasant
+out on that sunny sea at any rate."
+
+He steadied the boat for her, and she stepped in.
+
+"Where to?" he asked, half in jest, when a stroke or two had taken
+them from the shadow of the rock into the glitter of the sinking sun,
+where they lay bathed in light, the water dripping from the lifted
+oars like drops of molten gold. "Why shouldn't we leave everything
+behind and set sail for nowhere--anywhere?"
+
+With his arms resting on the oars, he leant forwards, fixing his dark
+eyes on her face. They were full of pity and a great tenderness.
+
+"You look so nice there, Maud. Take off your hat, dear, and let the
+sun shine on your hair as it used to do when you were a girl. If I had
+my will, Maud, you should always be in the sunlight; you know that,
+don't you?"
+
+The oars fell into the water softly as he rowed on, whilst she sate
+silent, trailing one hand in the water and watching the great big
+medus� come pulsating past.
+
+"How pleasant it must be to drift--like that!" she said half to
+herself, and once again the drip, drip, drip, of those golden tears
+filled up the silence as the boat swayed idly on the breathing of the
+sea.
+
+"Why shouldn't we drift? There is plenty of time, and God knows ties
+enough, as a rule. Grapnels fore and aft and a mud bank under all to
+stick upon."
+
+"Don't talk of that now, Eustace," she broke in hurriedly. "Let
+us forget it for this last half hour. Isn't it enough to be
+here--together?"
+
+"Enough for now--" he replied unsteadily; "but for afterwards?"
+
+"There may be no afterwards."
+
+He shook his head. "A man never thinks of that. He can't live on
+moonshine; or sunshine either. He wants something real; and so do you.
+Maud! what will you do when you go back to him?"
+
+She put out her hand in entreaty with a little cry. "Oh, Eustace! can
+you not let me be happy for one short half hour?"
+
+"Happy, when we are going to part? Happy, when I know what your future
+will be? when I know it will be torture to you? Why did you send him
+away if it was not because the strain was too great for you to bear?"
+
+"I--I did not send him away," she faltered.
+
+"Pshaw! Hooper told me about it--the fool was afraid. Then the wire
+came, of course, and there was no need for the other. But you meant
+it, Maud. Ah, my darling! don't think I am blaming you--Blame! How
+could I blame you save for too much patience?
+
+"Maud, let us cut the knot! We have made a mistake, both of us; for
+you are miserable, and I--I will not bear it. Come--the yacht is
+there. Let us go into the sunshine. Come, my darling--see how fate
+points the way. We are drifting, drifting--a little more and the
+current will take us. Why should you go back to the empty house? the
+empty life? Maud! Maud!"
+
+What does a man say to a woman when he has forgotten everything in the
+world save his mad desire to keep her for his own? All that could be
+said, in all its tenderness, its passion, and its selfishness, was
+hers as the boat drifted and drifted.
+
+"I am cold!" she said suddenly, giving a little shudder, yet drawing
+closer to him. "We shall be too late."
+
+"Too late to return," he answered joyously. "Oh, Maud, trust me this
+once--See, the yacht is close." He turned and gave a quick exclamation
+of surprise. Where were they? Not, as he expected, within a stone's
+throw of the coast, drifting surely southwards. Here was nothing save
+sea, and rising slowly from it on all sides a thin mist, golden in the
+sunlight through which, in the far distance, a shadow or two loomed
+faint, unrecognized.
+
+Above them the sky, clear as ever; below them the sea, bright,
+pellucid; but between them a gathering curtain which even as he looked
+faded from gold to white, from white to grey, as the unseen sun sank
+beneath the unseen horizon.
+
+"It is a sea-haugh," he said lightly; "the wind must have changed to
+the north, and the cold condenses the vapour. I have seen them often
+after hot weather. But it is all right. We must be close to the yacht,
+for we were well in the current when I stopped rowing; and it runs
+inshore due south. If I whistle, they must hear and answer."
+
+But none came, and the sound seemed to return resonant from the mist,
+showing that it had not travelled far. So, whistling, shouting, and
+rowing, they spent some time in vain, till fear began to invade her
+courage. What if they had drifted past? What if they were drifting out
+to sea, further and further from safety? He tried to scoff at her
+alarm, though his own anxiety grew fast as the mist settled thicker
+and thicker till he could not see a yard beyond the bows. Suddenly,
+with a grating shock, the boat stopped abruptly, almost throwing them
+into each other's arms. His heart seemed to stop also, as he
+remembered having heard of sunken rocks in mid channel.
+
+"We are aground--stay still, I will see."
+
+He stepped cautiously over the side, one foot into six inches of water
+and a shelving bottom, the other into three. Then on to firm dry warm
+sand. His laugh of relief was genuine.
+
+"The adventure is over, Maud. Come! let me help you out. This must be
+the mainland; but where, I can't say."
+
+A difficult question, indeed, to decide with that grey mist curtain
+closing in and shutting out all, save a patch or two of bent at their
+feet.
+
+"Stay here a bit," he continued, "and I will explore. Take the
+whistle. I won't go beyond its reach or be away long; the road must be
+close by."
+
+It was not, however, and he returned after a time with a clouded face.
+"I don't understand it. The sea seems to surround us except in one
+direction, and that is all sand and bent. I don't remember any such
+point below Gr�da."
+
+"Perhaps we are above it," suggested his companion.
+
+"Quite impossible. The current runs south; a sort of back eddy from
+the big stream. That is what brings all the drift to Gr�da Sands. The
+question, however, is what we are to do. Take to the boat again and
+punt along the shore till we find a landmark, I should say. Best not
+to desert our ships."
+
+But this again brought a disappointment, and half an hour's rowing,
+punting, and towing resulted in nothing. By this time it was almost
+dark, the mist gathered denser than ever, and with the approach of
+night the north wind rose steadily.
+
+"The sooner we settle ourselves the better, if we have to camp out,
+and it looks like it," said he at last. "Still, if we light a fire,
+some one may see it. Anyhow, there are stores and a sail in the boat,
+so we shall manage. Cheer up, Maud; imagine we are children again. How
+often haven't we pretended to be cast away on a desert island
+together, and how happy we were!"
+
+True enough; yet as she helped him to gather driftwood for the fire,
+her thoughts were on the difference between those days and these. And
+there was more to them in this mischance than there would have been to
+others. What had she meant to do when she stepped into the boat? She
+could not tell; only this she knew, that fate seemed to have decided
+for her. If the fire brought some one--well and good. If not, why then
+Eustace and she had gone adrift. That question was settled forever.
+
+She sate feeding the fire, whilst he foraged for eatables in the boat,
+and each stick seemed to her another doubt dispelled. How they flamed
+and crackled and sparkled, as driftwood does out of sheer joy in
+burning. Yet no one came--no one.
+
+Later on, with the tenderness which was a fierce delight to her, he
+found her what shelter he could on that bare waste of bent and
+shingle; though it was only a nook, backed on the windy side by a
+rough slab of rock half embedded in the sand. Still it was dry and
+warm, and with the boat's sail wrapped round her, and her feet towards
+a freshly built fire, she could lean back comfortably and defy some of
+the growing cold and rising wind. She sate watching him silently as he
+sate by the fire, turning every now and again to assure himself of her
+comfort or tuck the sail, loosened by the wind, round her more
+closely.
+
+Suddenly, during one of these ministrations, her eye caught the
+sparkle of dewdrops on his coat, and she stretched out her delicate
+hand to touch his sleeve. It was quite wet.
+
+"There is plenty of room for you here, Eustace," she said quietly,
+"and the sail will cover us if we sit close together. I--I must not
+begin by being selfish." Then her calm gave way. "Oh, Eustace!
+Eustace! we must love each other very dearly or I shall die of shame."
+
+Something in the almost despairing surrender to fate roused the best
+part in his nature. He drew her head on to his shoulder and kissed her
+gently.
+
+"Good-night, dear. Go to sleep if you can. I'll watch the fire."
+
+She gave a little shivering sob and clung to him. All was settled now;
+she had taken her life into her own hands; the struggle was over, and
+he was a haven of rest--a haven of rest. Her thoughts went no further
+than that, for she was utterly wearied out; but as he sate beside her,
+his mind went far afield into the afterwards which he had claimed as
+his right; and more than once as she stirred in the uneasy sleep into
+which she had fallen, he bent over her again and kissed her. She was
+his; the past was at an end; scruples must come later if they came at
+all. He had foreseen this ending from the beginning; perhaps he
+had tried to escape from it; perhaps he had not. This much was
+certain,--the stars had fought for him, and she was his. The wind
+swept steadily round them, but, safe sheltered as she was, he
+feared no harm, and when the dawn came their troubles would all be
+over--forever.
+
+So sheltering her, as morning approached he, too, fell into a doze,
+and the fire, deprived of fuel, sank by degrees to a heap of
+smouldering ashes. Then the chill which comes before the day sought
+them out even in each other's arms, and brought to both a vague,
+surprised consciousness of their surroundings. Where were they? What
+had happened? With eyes still full of sleep and dreams, she saw the
+grey mist hanging round them--the ashes of the fire which had burnt so
+bravely last night. Last night! Great God, how came she there?
+
+"Eustace!" she cried, starting up wildly, one hand finding aid from
+the slab of rock behind her. Her pretty hair was damp with dew, her
+face flushed where it had rested on his shoulder.
+
+For answer he caught her to him and covered her face with passionate
+kisses. He, too, was fresh from sleep and dreams,--dreams of the
+hereafter. And now the day had come, and yonder, where the mist showed
+lightest, the sun was rising.
+
+"Oh, no! no!" she panted, struggling to escape.
+
+"Maud!"--his tone was full of surprised reproach as he fell back a
+step,--"what is it? What have I done?"
+
+"What have _I_ done?" she echoed swiftly. "I can't remember! Oh, God!
+what's that?" Her voice rose to a shriek; she clung to him
+convulsively with one hand while her eyes fixed themselves on the
+stone slab which had sheltered her--and him.
+
+The north wind had done work during the night, and the embedded slab
+was clear now; more than clear. It formed part of a stone coffin
+whence the wind had driven the sand, leaving the contents exposed to
+view. Only a few bones, but, backed by the drifted sand, they still
+kept the semblance of a skeleton sitting staring out into the mist.
+
+Eustace Gordon recoiled--the best of men would have done so much in
+such a situation; then memory aided him.
+
+"It is Eilean-a-fa-ash, Maud--Eilean-a-varai--you remember. We must
+have drifted north somehow. Don't look so scared, my darling. It is
+only Eilean-a-fa-ash--the Island of Rest--that is all."
+
+She did not heed him; her eyes, full of an almost insane terror,
+were fastened on the fleshless hand which lay so near--oh! God in
+heaven!--so near her own as it clutched the side of the coffin.
+
+"The ring," she whispered. "Look! look--the ring, my ring, my ring."
+
+Yes! on the dead as on the living hand he saw the ring with its
+legend, "Beautiful, constant, chaste." A chill came over even his
+passion; yet he turned to her with sudden petulance.
+
+"Well! what then?--you know whence it must have come, what it must
+have been from the beginning, I suppose. Come! let us leave these
+horrors, let us leave the past and be sensible. Come, Maud."
+
+She gave him one look,--a look he never forgot,--and with a cry of
+"Rick's ring! Rick's ring!" broke from him and disappeared into the
+mist.
+
+"Maud! Maud! don't be silly! Maud! where are you going? For God's
+sake, Maud! come back. The mist--the sea--are you mad? Maud! Maud!"
+
+Then he, too, was blotted out, and the growing light of day found
+nothing human there save the bones of a woman who had been loved.
+Nothing but that and the ashes of a fire which had gone out.
+
+"Maud! Maud!" The cry hit on the mist and came echoing back to him,
+as, following her faint footsteps, he pursued her. Once looming
+through the fog he thought he saw her pausing as for breath, but his
+passionate entreaty for her to wait for him, his eager reminder that
+he was Eustace--Eustace, her lover--brought no response. Did he
+imagine a faint cry as if she started off in renewed alarm, or was it
+only some sea-bird hidden in the mist, uttering its plaintive note?
+
+He brought himself up suddenly with a gasp of horrid fears as his feet
+gave way beneath him--deeper? deeper? No! that was right: firm ground
+once more, but where was he? Where were those faint footmarks leading
+him?
+
+"Maud! Come back! It is not safe!" Still he went on. Not safe, indeed!
+He floundered desperately for a moment, and then stood with laboured
+breath and a dew of deadly fear on his face, looking round him. The
+sun rising steadily had, by this time, turned the mist into a golden
+haze, through which he could see that a few seaweed-hung boulders had
+been gathered to a heap whence sprang a cross-shaped post. It must be
+a ford--the sea ford to Eilean-a-fa-ash. That way then lay safety, for
+a few hours; but which way had she gone? He stooped to see, with fear
+for her and for himself fighting with his love. Then he stood up, pale
+as death. "Maud! Come back. Maud! I will not hurt you." Surely, surely
+there was an answering cry. The relief seemed to blind him, deafen
+him.
+
+"Here! Here! where are you? It is I!"
+
+The next instant Rick Halmar was beside him, fiercely imperative.
+"Where is she? Where is she?"
+
+Eustace Gordon looked at the eager boyish face stupidly, and faltered,
+"She was afraid--she ran away. I don't know why. Call her. She might
+come to you. Call her."
+
+Those bright blue eyes seemed to pierce him through and through,
+before they sought the ground. There was not much to be seen; only the
+print of a woman's foot in the sand, a foot going south; due south.
+
+"Coward!"
+
+The word rang out clear from the golden mist like a voice from heaven,
+and Eustace Gordon was left standing alone beside the cross pointing
+towards safety. Rick Halmar had gone south; due south.
+
+
+
+
+                                 VIII
+
+
+Then a new cry beat itself upon the curtain of mist: "Lady Maud! Lady
+Maud! it is I--Rick! Rick Halmar." And the boy's voice reached further
+than the man's, as moment by moment the sea-haugh lightened, softened,
+rose, until it seemed no more than a golden halo round the climbing
+sun.
+
+"It is I--Rick! Rick Halmar."
+
+His hands clenched tighter and tighter as he ran. To Eustace the
+danger had been uncertain, unreal, but Rick knew every inch of the
+ground, and knew that each step left hope further behind. Already his
+accustomed ear had caught the curious whispering hush with which the
+land gives way before the sea. And he knew what that meant on Gr�da
+Sands. Firm foothold for a second and then a shivering and murmuring
+sliding gulf. Oh, horrible, most horrible to think of her.
+
+"Lady Maud! it is I--Rick, only Rick."
+
+The thought came to him suddenly that it was his birthday. She had
+promised to give him something. Ah! fate could not be so cruel on his
+birthday of all days in the year! Foolish irrational thought which
+somehow brought him comfort as his keen eyes sought a sign and found
+nothing but those shining footsteps, whence the water filtered even as
+he sped past them. Thank Heaven for so much! since it showed that the
+tide was still far off; that as yet there was time. Lighter and
+lighter too! Soon he might be able to see her, ghostlike, through the
+mist, or at least judge the distance of that creeping line of foam
+which, still unseen, and still, he hoped fiercely, far, far off, yet
+seemed to occupy his every thought, to fill his memory. Tortuous like
+a snake, with the snake's low hiss as it curled along the quivering
+sand. Suddenly his heart stood still, for there out of the golden mist
+grew the tall black spar of the old wreck with its message of warning:
+"Pretty safe so far, most times; beyond that--" The recollection of
+his own careless words prompted another cry.
+
+"My lady--my dearest lady. It is I, Rick--only Rick."
+
+What was that on the sand--blotting the yellow sand just below the
+spar? A stone? seaweed? No--that was a woman's dress; she was there,
+face downwards on the sand, fallen insensible perhaps--but saved.
+Thank God! saved. He stumbled in his mad haste to reach her. Was it a
+stumble, or had his foot broken through the firmer crust? Again, this
+time both feet. Could he have come so far, so close, only to fail?
+Impossible! Then beneath him he felt a tremor, the first slight tremor
+heralding the dissolution of dry land. With the sudden resolve which,
+in time of danger, separates one man from his fellow, decisively,
+absolutely, to the utter annihilation of all cant about equality, he
+put all his strength into one bold leap forward. The next instant he
+was clinging to the spar like a monkey, or a sailor. The tremor
+passed; the sand settled once more with a low gurgling murmur,
+proclaiming the back draw of the wave still hidden by the haze.
+Cautiously he tried one foot beyond the single plank between him and
+destruction. Hopeless, even if he stood still, and to reach her he
+must take a step or two. Again the tremor came,--the shifting, sliding
+sparkle of the sand-grains as they parted,--and the figure lying with
+its face hidden, resting on the right arm, sank a little. Only a very
+little; yet still it sank. He had come prepared for danger, with a
+rope wound about his waist; and almost with his first foothold on the
+wreck, his hands had been busy with the coil even while his thoughts
+and eyes were elsewhere. A bight here, a bend there, and it was fast
+as sailor's lore could make it, to the spars and to his body. No! not
+there; for it had to be doubled to bear the strain, and he could not
+afford to lose an inch. So, tight over one shoulder with a treble
+twist round his outstretched arm. That would not give way unless it
+tore the arm from its socket; and then the rope, being high up on the
+spar, would give him greater purchase when the time came for strength.
+How long these thoughts, these actions, seemed to take; yet he could
+not spare one of them even though, with a soft, swishing rush, the
+hidden enemy made another sally. This time lingering half a moment
+round that figure on the sand as if to gain a firmer hold upon it.
+Perhaps! but not so firm as his would be. Now he was ready! With a
+swing backwards and forwards to gain additional impetus, the rope
+coiled loosely so as not to drag, he leapt clear of the wreck towards
+her. An instant's doubt, and he had her by the hand, the left hand,
+which lay stretched on the sand as she had fallen. How cold it was!
+Could she be dead? But the horror of the thought was forgotten in
+fight; for now, with the same chuckling sound as if the devils below
+were laughing at him, came the back draw. Not an inch, not a quarter
+to be yielded, come what might. The rope, despite his bitter clench
+upon its strands, cut deep into his arm; it seemed as if a red-hot
+iron pierced his shoulder, as the sinews strained to their uttermost.
+Ah! that was a relief, but her weight was heavier surely, and that
+meant less stable support. Hanging as he was, by one arm,--the other
+outstretched to keep his hold on her,--he could see nothing save the
+unsteady sand closing round him. He seemed to feel nothing save the
+little cold hand in his. It was now or never. Grasping the rope as
+high as he could reach, he put out his whole strength, hoping to move
+her but an inch nearer to him. Hopeless; and the back draw, coming on
+him unawares, found him, as it were, on the rack, and seized its
+opportunity. He set his teeth and endured. How, he never knew, but
+when the agony passed, a dew, like that of death, was on his face, and
+he hung nerveless, helpless, save for the desperate resolve to keep
+his hold--to keep her hand in his. The wave again. Little bubbles this
+time, as if some one was drowning close by. Ah! if he could only see
+her, even though it was to see her gripped in that pulsating horror!
+
+"Maud! it is I--only Rick." The cry came from him as he hung on
+the rack once more. Perhaps, if he could keep his hold, the coming
+tide would slacken that grip--it might--it must. How far had she
+sunk--already? Had the golden head disappeared? Was there nothing
+left save the little cold hand where he could feel the ring--his
+ring--slipping under his clasp? Ah! there was the wave again--surging
+in his ears, whispering, whispering, whispering, surely of some
+far-off country, of a great rest, and peace, and forgetfulness.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Rick Halmar hung limp upon the rope. Nature had stepped in; her
+patience was exhausted, she would have no more heroism, no more delay.
+Those two hands had held each other long enough. The time had come for
+them to part quietly, peacefully. Not in a moment, but gradually, as
+if even in unconsciousness the spirit strove against the flesh, those
+slender fingers slipped through the strong ones. Slipped and slipped,
+till, with a little jerk, Rick's hand closed upon itself, and fell
+back inert, while the other, still stretched in mute appeal, sank
+slowly into the sand.
+
+The sun, having escaped from its halo, saw the deed done, and smiled
+down upon the sight cheerfully. Only a boy with a birthday present in
+his hand. Only one more woman loved and lost. What was that to weep
+over? A wheeling gull, sweeping by on broad white wings, suggested
+sympathy, but, in reality, it came to see if the deed portended food
+for its young ones. There were no other spectators. Had there been,
+they would have been so occupied by vain attempts to aid, that the
+essence of it all would have escaped them. Such things are better told
+than witnessed.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+So thought Miss Willina when, three weeks afterwards, Rick, with his
+left arm still in a sling, tried to make her understand it was not his
+fault. He wore the silver ring on his right hand; they had found it
+there tight clasped when, set on the track by Eustace Gordon, they
+came in a boat to the rescue. Just too late to do more than release
+Rick from a torture none the less painful afterwards because it was
+unfelt at the time. Perhaps, with her older eyes, Miss Willina saw
+further into the blame than he did; but she said nothing.
+
+So Rick kept the ring, with its legend "Beautiful, constant, chaste,"
+as his birthday present. He did not even give it to his wife. It
+belonged, he said, to the most perfect woman he had ever seen, and
+when people suggested the propriety of this being a euphonism for the
+one he had chosen as his life-companion, he shook his head with a
+smile.
+
+Nevertheless, Miss Willina was not silent of blame. She poured vials
+of it on her own head for having neglected a clear duty. If she had
+only insisted on the other devil being burnt as well, this terrible
+thing might not have come to pass. Anyhow, she would go over to the
+deserted Lodge without delay, and destroy the wicked idol, lest it
+should do more harm.
+
+"Let me come too," said Rick in a low voice.
+
+This time Miss Willina did not meet his request with the query, "Was
+she so pretty as all that, dear?" Indeed, the memory of those words
+choked her.
+
+So Rick went for the first time into the little sanctum where Lady
+Maud had stood adrift at the window. The image was still on the
+mantelpiece, and he started at the sight of it. "Aunt Will!" he cried
+in quick, half-alarmed tones, "I never made that--it is not my work."
+
+It was not. The professor had been right for once, when he called it a
+genuine savage conception of fate, brought thither by the Gulf Stream.
+
+Rick took it up in his hands and looked at it curiously. "I wonder,"
+he said, half to himself, "if things would have been different." Then,
+with a sort of appeal, he turned to Miss Willina. "Aunt Will--you
+don't really believe--all that rubbish--do you?"
+
+Her answer was decisive. She took the image from him, and marched off
+with it to Kirsty's peat fire.
+
+So that was an end of the tragic comedy of Roederay. When Rick set off
+to sail the seas, all the actors in it had disappeared, save Miss
+Willina in the windblown Noah's Ark at Eval.
+
+Will Lockhart came back the next summer, and painted a picture of
+Eilean-a-fa-ash, with a golden sea-haugh hanging over drifted sand,
+and the skeleton of a hand showing from a stone coffin. It was
+gruesome and morbid; so it was much admired by the Gulf Stream of
+society in the Royal Academy. Miss Willina, however, still refused to
+find entertainment in a magic lantern. The past was sacred, she said,
+and no good ever came in disbelieving in it. Besides, what would
+become of her animals?
+
+He came again the next summer, bringing with him a tale about the
+"flusteration midst the bastes of all creation," which followed on the
+introduction of the "Spirit of fell Denial into the Ark," whereat they
+both laughed.
+
+And that year he sent a picture to the Royal Academy, which a few
+critics admired. But then, it was only the portrait of a middle-aged
+woman with a sick gosling on her lap, and half a dozen zoological
+specimens grouped around her. Yet you could almost feel the northwest
+wind which was ruffling the coils of hair, and smell the fresh, salt,
+wholesome breeze which had swept the sand from those dead fingers at
+Eilean-a-fa-ash. It was the other side of the picture; but it did not
+suit the public taste so well. _Chacun � son gout_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the Tideway
+
+Author: Flora Annie Steel
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39847]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE TIDEWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (New York Public Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br>
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:<br>
+<br>
+http://books.google.com/books?id=sYwnAAAAMAAJ<br>
+<br>
+(New York Public Library)<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+2. Table of Contents added by Transcriber.</p>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>IN THE TIDEWAY</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>IN THE TIDEWAY</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+<br>
+<h2>FLORA ANNIE STEEL</h2>
+
+<h5><span class="sc">Author of &quot;On the Face of the Waters,&quot; &quot;Miss Stuart's<br>
+Legacy,&quot; &quot;Red Rowans,&quot; etc., etc.</span></h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>New York</h3>
+<h2>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</h2>
+<h3>1897</h3>
+
+<h5><i>All rights reserved</i></h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4><span class="sc2">Copyright, 1897</span>,<br>
+<span class="sc">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>Norwood Press<br>
+<span class="sc2">J. S. Cushing &amp; Co.--Berwick &amp; Smith<br>
+Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</span></h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<br>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_prologue" href="#div1_prologue">PROLOGUE</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">CHAPTER I</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">CHAPTER II</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">CHAPTER III</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">CHAPTER IV</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">CHAPTER V</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">CHAPTER VI</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">CHAPTER VII</a></h4>
+<h4><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">CHAPTER VIII</a></h4>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<h2>IN THE TIDEWAY</h2>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_prologue" href="#div1Ref_prologue">PROLOGUE</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A Statue of charity with helpless childhood gathered to the ample
+bosom, and helpless age sheltered by the ample veil behind it, a
+crimson curtain concealing an angle in the stairway. In front a crowd
+streaming slackly, yet steadily, up the steps; a crowd which broke
+into little eddies of greeting, little backwaters of gossip, whilst
+the waves from the rear, taking advantage of the pause, rippled higher
+and higher. A crowd complaining indifferently of the crush, the heat,
+the impossibility of being in two places at once--not with reference
+to the hay-sweet meadows and copses where the nightingales were
+singing to the moon that summer's night, but in regard to some other
+hot staircase, where society was due some time ere the sun rose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To the man who, in a comfortable niche behind the statue, sate removed
+from the pressure of the current, the scene was framed by Charity's
+mantle. Perhaps it needed the setting; a crowd generally does whether
+it be in the old Kent Road or Grosvenor Square.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Big Bear! I beg your pardon, Mr. Lockhart. Why aren't you in
+Rome, and is there room for me on that peaceful seat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is always room for Golden Locks beside the Big Bear--and now,
+Lady Maud, why should I be in Rome at this season of the year?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because, being an artist, you should not mind malaria. Besides, what
+is malaria to this insufferable heat and crush? Doesn't it strike you
+that our hostess thinks getting into society, and getting society into
+her rooms, are synonymous terms? Did you ever see such a--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Charity, Lady Maud, Charity!&quot; interrupted her companion, pointing to
+the protecting arm stretched between them and the crowd. &quot;Let it cover
+the multitude--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of sins? Thank you. I suppose I am wicked. But you--why are you here
+in the swim? When you profess to despise us--to renounce the world,
+the flesh, and the devil--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I came to see one who should have nothing to do with that
+Trinity of Evil either. I came to see you, Lady Maud. I couldn't pass
+through Babylon without giving you my congratulations. So you are
+going to be married--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, looking her in the face curiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well! Why don't you say 'at last'? It is what every lady thinks, I'm
+sure. People have been coming perilously near calling me 'poor Lady
+Maud' these last two seasons, and now--yes! I am to marry Mr.
+Wilson--you know him, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I do know that fortunate man, and, pardon me, Lady Maud, but you
+and I have been confidential, haven't we? ever since in a <i>tourbillon</i>
+of white frills and blue sashes you chose to prefer my walnuts to
+other folks' sweeties at dessert. Now about Eustace. What is to become
+of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The pretty face winced just a little.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Haven't you heard? Eustace is to be married also; indeed, we think of
+choosing the same day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Out of bravado?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing of the kind. Eustace and I have put away--childish things. We
+have decided to be sensible, and he is marrying Louisa Capper, the
+American heiress. I like Louisa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I trust that feeling is shared by Eustace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How hopelessly old-fashioned you are, Big Bear! I don't believe you
+will ever learn to shave yourself in tufts, and become a civilized
+poodle. Of course he likes her. She is really a very nice girl, and
+then she only has a father. Don't you think the American '<i>par-par</i>'
+is less objectionable as a rule than the '<i>mar-mar</i>'? To be
+serious,--which I should not trouble to be with ninety-nine people out
+of a hundred,--Eustace and I have seen the error of our ways, and we
+intend--in fact, I personally expect to be very happy. As I said,
+Louisa is very--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where do you spend the honeymoon?&quot; he interrupted, not being in the
+least interested in Louisa's part in the business.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Again hopelessly old-fashioned! There is but one place, nowadays, in
+which to spend a honeymoon,--Paris. It is so full of distractions.
+Then Mr. Wilson has taken a grouse moor near the North Pole; Eustace
+is to come there in his new yacht, and we are to have a real good
+time; as Louisa--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Near the North Pole? Didn't know grouse grew there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it is not very far from it. I forget the name,--but see! there
+is Eustace behind old Lady Brecknock's feathers. He will remember.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A very handsome dark man in the stream saw her signal and drifted
+sideways to shelter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Charity cometh,&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Please not. Mr. Lockhart has patented it already; besides, I want you
+to tell me the name of that place in the Hebrides. Roederay! Yes, of
+course! I remember now that it put me in mind of dry champagne. By the
+way, you used to paint that coast once, Mr. Lockhart; do you by chance
+know Roederay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What is called a flicker of expression crossed her hearer's face. It
+is a poor description for the absolute blank which a chance word
+brings to some imaginative people by summoning them from the present
+into the past.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it well,&quot; he replied. &quot;And if you will excuse me, Lady Maud, I
+don't think it has much in common with dry champagne.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her clear, rather scornful eyes were on him critically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Association belongs to Hope as well as Memory, Mr. Lockhart. You may
+have had a <i>mauvais quart d'heure</i> at Roederay. We intend to have a
+good time; don't we, Eustace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rather!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I doubt it,&quot; retorted the elder man; &quot;civilized people, like you,
+Eustace, for instance, shouldn't go to those places. To begin with,
+there is always a difficulty about dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud laughed. &quot;Not in these days of ice and telegraphs. Besides,
+some of us like high teas--don't we, Eustace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His face did not change, though the appeal took him back many years in
+his turn; but then, the speaker was in that past as she was in the
+present. To say sooth, she occupied them both fully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, we can endure them. Do you remember those holidays at Lynmouth,
+Maud, and the feeds we had on the cliffs? I wonder if any boy ate more
+strawberries and cream at a sitting than I could do in those days?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you changed much since then?&quot; she asked, smiling up at him
+mischievously. &quot;I don't see it, do you, Mr. Lockhart?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a bit,&quot; replied the elder, laying his hand affectionately on the
+other's shoulder. &quot;Eustace is just what he was as a boy--not to be
+stinted in his enjoyment of good things. To return, however, to
+Roederay. You won't like its simplicity, its habit of taking one right
+down to first principles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It couldn't! we are too complex--aren't we, Eustace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And then it is grim. There is an island full of dead people, who
+appear--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! I know all about the stone coffins and the bones; Professor
+Endorwick told me, and he is coming north on purpose to explore all
+the antiquities. There he is in the crush with Cynthia Strong. I
+wonder when that will come off? Call them here, Eustace, and wisdom
+shall confound this Evil Prophet. Why, the professor, Mr. Lockhart,
+thinks <i>Eilean-a-varai</i> alone is sufficient inducement for a visit to
+Roederay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Eilean-a-varai</i>--Isle of the Dead, you call it? We used to prefer
+another name: <i>Eilean-a-fa-ash</i>--Island of Rest. It lies right out in
+the sunset, like Avilion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud gave a little shiver.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh no! that is ever so much more grim than the other. I hate things
+which--which appeal to the imagination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am quite aware of it,&quot; he replied quietly; &quot;hence my prophecy that
+Roederay will not suit you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She sate playing with her fan idly. &quot;Island of Rest indeed! There
+never was such a place--there never will be. Ah, professor, come like
+a good soul and do battle for civilization and culture. Are we not far
+better than the primitives of the North Pole? Are we not stronger,
+wiser, more original--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The learned professor, being a little deaf, did not quite catch her
+words. He was, in addition, much given to the jocular style when
+addressing the weaker sex, which he held to have been created for the
+sole purpose of exercising the social qualities of man. So, an
+appropriate remark having occurred to him, he came forward primed with
+it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Charity, Lady Maud, is, as a rule said to cover a multitude of sins;
+in this case it conceals the virtues.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And he was greatly pleased with himself when everybody laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the whole, I retract 'original,'&quot; continued Lady Maud gravely; &quot;so
+you needn't defend that proposition, professor. How can we be
+original? There is nothing new under the sun; even one's jokes have
+been appropriated by past generations. Everything has been used up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not everything,&quot; said Will Lockhart. &quot;To return to Roederay, for
+instance. You will be next-door neighbours to the Gulf Stream. It is
+not used up; far from it. <i>That</i>, Lady Maud, will be another of the
+horrid things which appeal to the imagination. Night and day--day and
+night--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shrugged her pretty bare shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is the Gulf Stream I like,&quot; she replied, pointing to the crowd
+still surging onwards. &quot;Why should you abuse it? We go on day and
+night, night and day. Upwards and onwards--to heaven, for all you
+know. I defy you and your old-world ideas and romances. We are going
+down to Roederay to paddle about where we choose, catalogue your dead
+people and their beliefs as we choose, and we are going to eat our
+dinner and kill everything we see. There is one of the slayers in the
+stream, Arthur Weeks, the best shot in England, so people say. Ah!
+Captain Weeks, Mr. Wilson tells me you are coming to Roederay. I am
+glad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Charity, Lady Maud,&quot; began the gallant warrior.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not your bird, Captain Weeks! Mr. Lockhart, my cousin
+Eustace, and the professor have all blazed away at that poor joke
+already. Of course, your gun would bring it down, but please be
+merciful. Let it go for another day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That reminds me, Gordon,&quot; said the captain confidentially to Lady
+Maud's cousin, when the laugh had ceased, &quot;I was speaking to old
+Snapshot about Roederay, and he assures me that the birds lie like
+stones in that part. Something, he said, to do with the Gulf
+Stream--but I don't know much of these scientific things, Lady Maud.
+Only I assure you he declares you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like
+chickens on the last day of the season.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a solemn pause. The advantages of Roederay seemed exhausted
+on all sides.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If some one will give me his arm,&quot; said Lady Maud, rising, &quot;I will go
+upstairs--to Paradise, perhaps, Mr. Lockhart. I really must say how do
+you do to our hostess before going on to the next.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">I</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Any luck, Rick?&quot; called a lady sitting on the doorstep of Eval House
+to a young man coming up the ferry-path. His rod was balanced level in
+his hand, his head bent forward against half a gale of wind, which,
+after sweeping the grass slopes into silvery waves, raced with white
+horses over the greener sea beyond. Yet on the doorstep, with the
+stone house betwixt you and the nor'west, the day was warm and still
+as any autumn day can be when a bright sun shines clear out of a
+brilliant blue sky.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was a very small lady, looking all the smaller because the energy
+expressed in every line of face and figure suggested its adequacy for
+the direction of a far larger mass of matter. Looking still smaller at
+that particular moment by reason of her being overwhelmed by a fleecy
+lamb she was endeavouring to feed with a teapot. For the rest, a lady
+long past youth, yet with sufficient traces of it left to show that it
+had been pre-eminently attractive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Luck, Aunt Will? Why, yes, the best of luck. I've seen the most
+beautiful woman in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Willina smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who will that be now? And is it twenty or twenty-one you are next
+month? Twenty-one, is it--yes: time passes. Then as you are so near
+man's estate it won't be Maclead's niece from Glasgow; she is too red
+in the face. Nor Katie Macqueen; you've seen her too often. Nor me,
+either, Rick, though I used to be called that sometimes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The transparent vanity in her tone made her nephew smile in his turn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's no home-grown beauty, Aunt Will. It's a London belle,--Lady Maud
+Wilson. You should just--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sudden upset of a lamb, whose four pointed toes strove for
+foothold against his legs, checked further speech. His aunt, however,
+waving the teapot in her excitement, filled up the pause, aided by a
+sick gosling which had fluttered down from her lap as she rose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Wilsons! Why didn't you tell me at once? Have they come at last?
+And why didn't they come before? And where are their servants? Why
+didn't they send word to the factor? And goody gracious me, Rick! what
+are they going to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you'll put that teapot at a safer distance and prevent Baalam from
+making me curse utterly, I'll try and explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A minute of frantic shoving, joined by a chorus of hounds from within,
+and Miss Will Macdonald returned breathless to her seat on the steps,
+while the sick gosling fluttered to her lap once more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is what I could gather. They have been deer-stalking with
+friends, because the grouse here were reported late. So they are, Aunt
+Will, I saw a covey yesterday--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Skip, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ahem! Well, their servants came by last <i>Clansman</i>; or rather they
+didn't, because--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Skip again. I know--too rough for her to put in--won't come till
+return trip. Go on, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How you do bustle a fellow! They expected cooks and scullions. All
+the show, in fact, including a but--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! do skip!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear aunt! you should have been a telegraph clerk. Well. Wrote for
+a machine to Carbost. Came along. Place shut up. Rick Halmar fishing
+sea pool. Saw signals of distress. Piloted 'em to harbour. Found
+Kirsty stacking peats. Lit the fire. Put on the kettle. Came home to
+tell his aunt. That is all, except that the factor is away to the Alan
+market and Kirsty has no English to speak of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They have servants with them of course?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A French maid. She is more solid than she looks. You see I had to
+help her out of the machine. She hadn't recovered the boat. They have
+been visiting about, and Mr. Wilson's man got left behind at
+Inverness, looking for lost luggage. Wired to say he would come on by
+the afternoon boat. Ha! ha! good joke, isn't it? Afternoon boat to
+Roederay. Now then, jump aboard! a penny all the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Willina's sympathetic soul saw no cause for mirth in the
+vision conjured up by her housewifely imagination. She put on the
+deer-stalker cap lying on the step beside her. It was a signal for
+action, since, within the home precincts, she dispensed with any head
+covering save the thick masses of dark hair, which were still her
+greatest pride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll go over. Kirsty is an idiot, at best. She was six whole months
+learning the 'Happy Land' at Sunday-school.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Besides it's not far--then your uncle's official position.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Skip, please!&quot; interrupted Rick, laughing. &quot;You don't want excuses
+for being a trump. Come along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His aunt's blue eyes flashed and sparkled. &quot;Oh! my dear! was she so
+pretty as all that? You won't be wanted! her husband is there, of
+course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aye! and her cousin, I think. At least, she called him Eustace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two of them! Then preserve us from a third man. Go you and fish like
+a Christian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leaving you to roam the moors alone, when I may be appointed to a
+ship tomorrow and not see you again for--don't laugh in that rude way,
+Aunt Will! Look here! Let's compromise. I'll go so far and fish
+Loch-na-buie till you return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They passed the slight hollow where Eval House sought a faint shelter,
+and the farm-yard whence, after depositing the sick gosling, Miss
+Willina had to escape at a run from a motley following of birds and
+beasts. So to the level stretches of moor and the full force of the
+blustering wind. A strange landscape to southern eyes. Earth, air, and
+water blent in a triple alliance so close as to destroy individuality.
+The sea lay landwards, the land seawards, and over both the nor'wester
+swept unrestrained, cresting green waves of heather as water with an
+edging of white foam or purple blossom. Were those hills, eastward
+across the Minch, or clouds? Was that level streak of light westwards
+the Atlantic or a glint of sky? Was the water showing at your feet
+between miniature cliffs of sphagnum moss salt or fresh? And did the
+land really sway before the wind? or was it only your footstep making
+the spongy soil rise and fall? This, however, was in the low ground
+eastward. Westward the rocks began to pile themselves gregariously in
+cairns, and the moorland rose gradually, so gradually that when its
+edge was reached you were surprised to find yourself so far above the
+shining plain of sea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here on a promontory commanding a magnificent view, and also a perfect
+exposure to all the winds of heaven, stood the modern shooting-box of
+Roederay Lodge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Substantial enough for the nineteenth century, yet reminding one
+irresistibly of those Swiss ch�lets in boxes which are to be bought
+for a sixpence in the Lowther Arcade. The fault, no doubt, of its
+surroundings; above all, of a sound which seemed to monopolize the
+whole landscape,--the sound of the Atlantic rolling in upon two miles
+of shelving sand a little to the southward. A sound that went on night
+and day, day and night, without a pause. Rhythmically true to a
+second, not to be shut out by any device of man. The strongest must
+put up with it or go away. On this particular September day, with the
+keen bright nor'wester sending a cross sea round the point, its voice
+had a querulous ring in it very different from the roar which echoed
+for fifteen miles across the island when the Atlantic was in a
+southwesterly mood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick Halmar, however, being a sailor accustomed to the sea in all
+tempers, took little heed of its tone. He sat to leeward of a cairn
+which tradition said marked the grave of a Viking, and whittled away
+at a piece of wood he had found close by, the pretence of fishing
+having been set aside when Miss Willina's decided little figure
+disappeared from sight. He whittled with more than the sailor's
+ordinary dexterity; for his father had been a Norwegian sprung from a
+long line of ancestors who had whiled away the winter days when their
+ships were in dock with wood-carving. Not much else save that trick of
+the knife, a straight Norse nose, and a passion for the sea had Eric
+Halmar inherited from the father he had never seen. For within a year
+of that hasty marriage between the shipwrecked sailor and Miss
+Willina's younger sister, pretty little Mrs. Halmar was in Eval House
+once more, weeping and waiting. Weeping for her handsome husband;
+waiting for her child to be born. She wept even after the waiting was
+over, till consolation came in the shape of another husband; for she
+was not a person of great steadfastness, and even her land prejudice
+against the sea as a profession had given way before Miss Willina's
+stern common sense.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The laddie thinks of nothing else,&quot; said his aunt; &quot;indeed, why
+should he, seeing he comes of pure Viking blood on the one side, and
+something of it on the other, if old tales be true? Send him to the
+navy; then if he is drowned, it will be decently in the Queen's
+uniform.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So into the navy he went, and, having passed through Greenwich, was
+now awaiting orders at Eval; where he found a most congenial playmate
+in his aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His still beardless face dimpled with smiles as he worked. To begin
+with, the wood, which had evidently been used as a cow peg, was
+mahogany. In other words, it must have been stolen from the drift pile
+on which his uncle, by virtue of his official position, was supposed
+to keep an eye, since the logs which the Gulf Stream leaves in its
+course are Government property. This amused Rick, seeing that the mere
+suggestion of such nefarious possibilities was a sure bait to his
+uncle's anger. Then the subject he had elected to carve seemed to him
+amusing. It was a replica of a Numbo Jumbo he had seen amongst the
+Caribbees, and which had tickled his fancy by its lavish ugliness. So
+his knife being a perfect tool-chest of implements, he gouged and
+punched, chiselled and filed, until, as he stuck the pointed end of
+the peg into the ground again, a very creditable copy of a malignant
+god stood before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It's the best I've done yet,&quot; he said to himself; &quot;that dodge of the
+bread-pellet eyes with the shot in the middle of them gives the old
+devil quite a live look.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was not yet twenty-one, and boy enough to be proud of the ingenuity
+which had converted some sandwich crumbs and the lead off a cast into
+a pair of evil eyes. Man enough, however, to whistle &quot;Who is Sylvia?&quot;
+as he leant back against the cairn, smiling at Numbo Jumbo and
+thinking of Lady Maud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rick! you bad boy!&quot; cried his aunt's eager voice just as he was
+beginning to forget everything in drowsiness. &quot;You promised you
+wouldn't when I threw the last into the Minch, and this is worse, ever
+so much worse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Better, you mean. It's the best I've done. Look at its eyes!&quot; Miss
+Willina pretended to shudder as her hand, instinct with righteous
+vengeance, went out towards the idol.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You might leave it there till we go,&quot; pleaded Rick. &quot;It really is the
+best I've done by a long way. Then you could take it home Aunt Will,
+and have a real <i>auto-da-fe</i>. It's more orthodox than drowning;
+besides, it will help the peats to a blaze when we go in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She burst out suddenly into an amused laugh. &quot;Peats!&quot; she echoed. &quot;Ah,
+Rick! if you had only seen them at Roederay. The room full of smoke,
+that lovely girl--she is beautiful, my dear--full of apologies. They
+took so long to kindle, she said. 'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you
+mustn't miscall a peat fire. It is the most hospitable one in the
+world.' They were all lying crisscross like a crow's nest, and you
+should have seen her relief when I had them standing shoulder to
+shoulder and they flared up like a Highland regiment at the skirl of
+the pipes. A little thing that, Rick, but so it was in all. I laughed
+till I cried. That house full of telephones, electric bells, hot-water
+pipes--all the modern whims--the factor says people won't take a
+shooting unless there is a fixed bath nowadays. Well! downstairs
+Kirsty and Janet the herd; four willing hands and no knowledge. I tell
+you, Kirst is just terrified of the dampers. 'Will it be blowing down
+the house, Miss Willina?' she says.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Skip, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The remark met with a scornful neglect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then upstairs those three with the knowledge but never a hand.
+Brains--at least two of them had, for the husband seemed fickless and
+no action. There they couldn't understand each other, and Mr. Wilson
+went about with his hand in his pocket, asking if a five-pound note
+would do any good.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear sir,&quot; said I, &quot;neither five, nor ten, nor fifteen will help
+us if the <i>Clansman</i> can't put in to-morrow. So let us pray for fine
+weather. Then I promised to lend them our cook, and we became great
+friends. Only, I don't know why, I felt all along as if something was
+going to happen; a sort of conviction things were going wrong; a kind
+of doubt whether we were in our right places; a description of--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Macdonald's presentiments were apt to embrace all things visible
+and invisible, so Rick made haste with a remark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what did you think of the other man,--Eustace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The shot was lucky. She paused and sat looking out over moor and sea
+with a mysterious expression of self-complacent sagacity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, auntie? you think--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing, my dear. Gracious goody! past four o'clock! the chickens not
+fed, the cows out in the wind, the ducklings still at the stream, the
+whole blessed Noah's Ark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had risen with the first word, and started off like a lapwing, so
+that, ere she finished, distance deadened her voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wait! please wait,&quot; shouted Rick; &quot;the animals went in two by two,
+remember!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was of no avail; so he caught up his rod and ran after her, leaving
+the idol to fulfil Miss Willina's r�le of sphinx.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It had been dark some hours before she dropped her knitting with a
+purposely dramatic start.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Rick! didn't I say I had a presentiment? Now I've gone and left
+that wicked idol on the <i>harp</i>--on the Alt na heac <i>harp</i> of all
+places in the world, and you a descendant of the Vikings!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick, at work on an infant Samuel for his aunt's room, looked up
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what has that to do with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? why, everything. Don't you know the legend? Everything left on
+that <i>harp</i> disappears. The dead take it as a tribute, and if they
+don't like it, they send it back to work evil to the living for a
+month and a day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willina!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. John Macdonald was a silent man, but when he did speak, his
+meaning was clear. &quot;Where the devil you get all that rubbish passes
+me. I've lived longer in this island than you, I've seen more of the
+people than you, yet I never heard such trash.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He dived back into his book as suddenly as he had emerged from it, and
+there was a dead silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind, auntie,&quot; whispered Rick sympathetically; for these
+outbreaks were almost the only things which upset Miss Willina's
+majesty. &quot;I'll go first thing and bring Numbo Jumbo back to be burnt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray do not trouble,&quot; she replied with an audible sniff. &quot;If I am
+foolish, I am foolish. If it is rubbish, I suppose it is rubbish. Only
+if anything happens, perhaps you will be considerate enough to admit
+that I foretold it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her hurt dignity, however, vanished before Rick Halmar's face, when he
+came in to breakfast next morning minus the idol.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gone! Oh, Rick! you don't mean it isn't there?&quot; she cried, in not
+displeased excitement. &quot;John! <i>do</i> you hear? It's gone, and you said
+it was rubbish. What do you say now?&quot; Mr. Macdonald affected not to
+hear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it's gone,&quot; said Rick. &quot;Numbo Jumbo's on the loose. I expect,
+really, that some of the crofter's children have taken it for a doll.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is all very well for your uncle to scoff, Eric, but the young
+should have more reverence for the wisdom of their elders,&quot; retorted
+his aunt severely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Aunt Will!--you don't really believe--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not responsible for my beliefs to <i>you</i>, Eric, whatever you may
+be to <i>me</i>, and perhaps if you have no respect for me as your aunt,
+you will please to recollect that I am also your godmother. It all
+comes of disobedience. 'Thou shalt not make to thyself--'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick leant back in his chair and roared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if you can't even remember that,&quot; she went on, bristling with
+dignity, &quot;you might recollect the punishment meted out to the children
+who mocked at the bald heads.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused, her hand went up suddenly to her coils of hair, she tried
+hard to keep her countenance, failed, and Mr. Macdonald's deep-toned
+laughter made a bass to her treble and Rick's tenor. That, nine times
+out of ten, was the end of Miss Willina's wrath.<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">II</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I found it,&quot; said Professor Endorwick, laying Numbo Jumbo on the
+drawing-room table at Roederay, &quot;as I was coming over the moor this
+morning, in order, Lady Maud, to finish a delightful walking tour by a
+still more delightful visit. Oddly enough, I found something similar
+on the Gr�da Sands yesterday, but this, I fear, is genuine, and
+therefore quite uninteresting. I have it in my knapsack if you will
+allow me. There! from the fracture you will observe that it has formed
+part of a handle, probably the paddle of a war canoe, as this
+grotesque, which represents the savage conception of �te or Fate, is
+generally used for that purpose. It has drifted here, doubtless in the
+Gulf Stream, is therefore, as I said before, uninteresting, since most
+museums possess something of the sort. This, however, is very
+different. It is, you will again observe, of very recent construction.
+This, joined to the fact that I found it on a <i>harp</i> or Viking's tomb
+famous in local tradition, points, to my mind, conclusively towards
+the survival amongst this primitive people of some, if not the
+original, cult of Fate. I need scarcely say that nothing is more
+difficult to track home than the faint footstep of a discredited
+belief, simply because rash inquiry results in prompt denial. I must
+therefore be careful, and I will ask you also, for the present at
+least, to preserve a kindly silence on my discovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked round his company as if it were a full meeting of the
+British Association after lunch. As a matter of fact, it consisted of
+Lady Maud, her husband, and Eustace Gordon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They had barely finished breakfast when the professor, ignorant of
+their discomfort, walked in on them according to previous arrangement.
+Mr. Wilson, a slight, pleasant-looking man with a short beard covering
+his chin,--or want of chin,--had been moving restlessly from window to
+fireplace and back again during this speech, now drumming with his
+fingers on the sill, now transferring his attention to a fisherman's
+barometer on the mantelpiece, again slipping his hands to his pockets
+as if to force himself to quiet. Lady Maud, meanwhile, stood by the
+table looking at Numbo Jumbo and the despised original.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So you think the one with the eyes most interesting? and I don't.&quot;
+She raised the flotsam jetsam in her slender hands, scanning it more
+closely. &quot;I wonder if you would give me this, professor,&quot; she said
+suddenly. &quot;I've taken a great fancy to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear lady! I am only relieved to find you have not chosen the
+other,&quot; he replied with a gallant bow. &quot;In either case, however, your
+desire is my law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe that beast of a thing is going down again,&quot; muttered Mr.
+Wilson from the mantelpiece. &quot;The <i>Clansman</i> will never be able to
+come in to-morrow. It's too bad of Hooper, upon my soul it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear fellow,&quot; remonstrated Eustace, &quot;anything will go down if it
+is continually thumped. It's a lovely day, a bit blowy, but it always
+blows on this coast. The warmth of the Gulf Stream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, confound the Gulf Stream!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud turned to her husband in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter to-day, Edward? I didn't know a valet was such a
+hero to his master. Why, Josephine hasn't done a hand's turn since she
+caught sight of the steamer at Oban, but I don't complain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He muttered something about Hooper having been with him for years and
+stood looking gloomily out of the window with his back turned to
+everybody.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eustace Gordon gave a half-contemptuous shrug of his shoulders and a
+look at his cousin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come out and see the ghillies, Wilson,&quot; he said. &quot;By the way, I sent
+to the inn for whiskey this morning; you see, professor, nothing can
+be done without it in these parts, so I hope you are not a total
+abstainer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The professor coughed gently. &quot;I believe I am on principle. But having
+observed the fact you mention, I invariably carry a flask with me on
+my walking tours, merely, of course, as a means of acquiring
+information.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. Wilson burst into sudden boisterous laughter. &quot;A good joke that.
+Come along! We all have a thirst for knowledge on us this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud, left alone with the two carven images, took up the sea-waif
+and carried it off to her own sanctum, where she stuck it in the place
+of honour on the mantelshelf. Then, walking to the window, she looked
+out on pale green jostling waves and purple-green swaying heather.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wonder when Louisa will turn up,&quot; she thought irrelevantly. &quot;After
+all, she would have done better to come on with us and get it over,
+instead of waiting in the yacht for calmer weather. Suppose it were
+never to calm down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She threw open the window with a reckless laugh. The fresh wind raced
+in, bellying the curtains like sails, catching her slender figure with
+such force that she was fain to cling to the sash as to a mast. So
+standing, with that background of surging sea, and one hand keeping
+her hair from her eyes, she looked as if she were adrift and searching
+the horizon for some familiar landmark.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here's luck, and wissing you may all go back as you came, without any
+mistakes whatever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the spokesman ghillie from below, toasting the new tenant. She
+looked down to meet Eustace Gordon's amused eyes raised to hers; she
+smiled back at him, and, closing the window, returned to the
+fireplace. There, under the eye of fate personified in the war paddle,
+the phrase &quot;go back as you came&quot; struck her as a curious wish, perhaps
+even a somewhat infelicitous one, considering the discomfort of their
+arrival. Whereat she laughed, as she did at most things. Not all, for
+Lady Maud, despite many attempts, had never been able to get the whip
+hand of her conscience. She had to <i>m�nager</i> it by driving round
+anything at which she thought it likely to shy. Her marriage to Mr.
+Wilson had been approached in this circuitous way until its manifest
+advantages completely obscured the central fact that she really loved
+her cousin Eustace. As yet repentance had not come to her; indeed, it
+came hardly to one so full of common sense and worldly wisdom as she
+was, but it came sometimes. Once as a child it had come suddenly in
+the sunlit solitary room into which she had been set apart for
+reflection, and she had knelt down to say na�vely, &quot;Oh, God, I'm sorry
+now; but please don't make me sorry again, for I don't like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That, briefly, was still her attitude towards the ideal. She did not
+love her husband, but she thought him sufficiently gentlemanlike and
+pleasing to save herself regret. She did, or rather she had, loved
+Eustace, but the idea of either of them permitting that past folly to
+interfere with the present they had deliberately chosen was absurd. To
+begin with, they would see little of each other, and when they did
+they would carefully avoid the renewal of any confidential relations;
+that was the great safety in these cases; for Lady Maud viewed the
+matter dispassionately, as a case.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She came down to dinner that evening in a pale plush teagown, with
+long sleeves falling back from her bare arms, and smiled at
+everything. At the fact that she got on perfectly without Josephine's
+help; at the furtive way in which Kirsty set down the dinner, as if it
+were a bomb, and she in a hurry to escape the explosion; at her
+husband's continued anxiety about the weather; at the professor's
+profuse apologies for having intruded on them so inopportunely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at all,&quot; she said gaily; &quot;you will make a fourth at whist; Edward
+loves a rubber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can't play to-night,&quot; replied her husband. &quot;I've a headache.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do look a little flushed; perhaps it is the wind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The wind!&quot; he echoed petulantly; &quot;of course it's the wind. Did you
+ever hear anything like it, Endorwick? I swear I never slept a wink
+last night, what with it and that confounded sea. It is enough to
+drive a fellow distracted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are as bad as Josephine,&quot; laughed his wife. &quot;She has been in
+hysterics all day until Miss Macdonald's cook gave her a whole tumbler
+of hot whiskey and water. Since then she has been asleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have all been trying that remedy,&quot; put in Eustace. &quot;What with the
+men coming in, and the boats being engaged, we shall want more whiskey
+to-morrow, Wilson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, we shan't,&quot; retorted his host quickly; &quot;I mean it's beastly
+stuff, you know. I never take anything but claret myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Awfully difficult to get decent claret nowadays,&quot; remarked Eustace
+with the ease, to him so delightfully new, of the rich man who
+quarrels with the supply and not the price. So the topic passed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll have a cigar and go to bed; I didn't sleep a bit last night,&quot;
+said Mr. Wilson shortly after they returned to the bare drawing-room,
+guiltless of all decoration, where Lady Maud's Parisian teagown looked
+so oddly out of place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take some hot whiskey and water,&quot; laughed his wife. &quot;Won't you all go
+to the smoking-room? You must be tired, professor, after your long
+walk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the learned man's social beliefs forbade cigars when a charming
+woman was the alternative, so he elected to remain. Being in reality
+much fatigued, however, he shortly afterwards gave way to the
+seductions of semi-darkness and an arm-chair. Semi-darkness because
+Kirsty's lamp smoking horribly, they preferred the light of the
+blazing peat fire. Outside the wind crooned round the house,--a
+lullaby to ears acquainted with its other notes, but to those
+accustomed to the stillness of the south, a banshee wail of coming
+trouble. With the firelight playing on the jet agraffes which held the
+cunning draperies on her gleaming bust and arms, Lady Maud was a
+picture few men could look on absolutely unmoved; but if Eustace
+Gordon felt the charm of her beauty, he gave no sign of it as yet.
+They sate there in the semi-darkness side by side, sometimes silent,
+sometimes talking indifferently of indifferent subjects. Alone, as
+utterly alone in the world as if they two were the only man and woman
+in it; for the barrier which luxury raises between one human being and
+another had given way. Supposing, for instance, the butler, instead of
+bobbing up and down on the Minch in the <i>Clansman</i>, had been at his
+post, would they have been sitting in semi-darkness uninterrupted by
+inroads for coffee cups, peats, and candles? Again, would any really
+high-class butler have permitted Professor Endorwick to snooze
+undisturbed in his chair, for two hours on end? Not that he did any
+harm by his slumbers; he might have awakened at any moment and joined
+unhesitatingly in the desultory talk of those two. True enough; yet
+when, at last, Eustace did rouse the learned man by lighting Lady
+Maud's candle, they both felt that the t�te-�-t�te had not left them
+quite as it found them; that in some of those half-indifferent
+ordinary remarks a virtue had gone out of them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She took the light from him, decidedly, with a refusal of his offer to
+pilot her along the dark passages; angry with herself for the very
+thought, she still felt that it would be wiser to say good-night here
+under the professor's eye; and as she went up the dim staircase, she
+paused to give a glance at the sea with a wonder as to when Louisa
+would find calm or courage enough to attempt the voyage. In a vague
+way, she recognized that things would go more comfortably if she were
+there. But beyond a sense of motion in the deep grey plane stretching
+away to a paler grey horizon, she could see nothing. The tide was
+flowing one way or another; that much was certain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She opened the door of her dressing-room softly, so as not to disturb
+her husband should he have fallen asleep. A great fire burnt bravely
+in her little sitting-room beyond, and something in the unusual
+silence of it all enhanced its comfort in her eyes. If Josephine had
+been awaiting her as usual, she could not have put off the task of
+undressing in favour of sheer idleness by the fire. Her husband was
+right; something in that rhythmical surge of the sea made one not
+exactly restless, but on the alert; disinclined for action, yet
+prepared for it. A foolish idea, since what could be going to happen
+to the small household already, for the most part, asleep? The
+professor would have taken the first opportunity of recommencing that
+snooze legitimately in his bed, and even Eustace,--why would her
+thoughts run on Eustace? Irritated at her own self-consciousness, she
+took up a book impatiently. It interested her, and, by and by, she
+turned for the second volume, to find that it must have been left in
+the travelling bag which Kirsty's ignorance had put in the bedroom.
+Shading the light carefully, she passed through the dressing-room, and
+so into the room beyond, giving a tentative glance at the bed as she
+entered, lest she should disturb the sleeper. It was empty. Her hand
+fell from the light; she looked round the room in surprise, and the
+next moment was on her knees beside a figure on the floor,--a figure
+which even in her first alarm brought back a horrible memory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edward! what is the matter? Are you ill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Once, as a slip of a girl out blackberrying, she had come upon a tipsy
+tramp in a ditch; a beast of a man who had met her innocent
+benevolence by stumbling to his feet, pursuing her as far as his feet
+would carry him. This was her solitary personal experience of
+drunkenness, and something in her husband's look and attitude revived
+the dread which had remained with her ever since. Yet he might be
+ill--very, very ill--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edward! what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This time he raised an unsteady arm against the candle she held to his
+face, and she shrank back, shaking all over. Her first impulse was
+that of civilization,--to ring for help, at least for company. But
+what good would that do in an empty house? Josephine, until other
+women came to share her fears, had elected to sleep in a great
+chamber on the upper storey. Besides, what good would she be? Kirsty
+slept outside with the other farm servants. Eustace! no, no! not
+Eustace,--not now at any rate,--not till she was certain. There was
+the cook, of course; people in that rank of life were accustomed--oh,
+no! no! it was not possible. What a wretch she was to harbour such
+suspicions, when he might be ill--perhaps dying. With this protest in
+her mind, her rich draperies caught over her arm, the candle flaring,
+guttering, almost out in the swift search, she made her way to the
+unknown regions beyond the swing door, which separated work from
+leisure. Here? No! that must be the pantry. There? No! that was the
+gun-room. So, peering in at each room, she went along the stone
+passages till suddenly a door right in front of her opened, and
+Eustace Gordon came out, with a candle in his hand. He had been
+sitting up over the smoking-room fire, impelled, as she had been, to
+wakefulness by something, he knew not what.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! Maud, my darling! What is it? What is the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She forgot everything in the comfort of companionship as, still
+shaking with fear, she went swiftly to his side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Edward. I think he is ill. Oh, Eustace, I am so frightened!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And he in his turn, taken utterly by surprise, seemed to forget
+everything save that the woman he loved passionately was there beside
+him. His thoughts had been so full of her, nothing but her, and now--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, come! please come; he is ill. I know he is ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes! I am coming,&quot; he said with an effort at self-control. &quot;Where is
+he--in your room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then, with his arm round her, they went back through the silent house
+together. Those two alone. Yet not, it seemed to her, so much alone as
+when they stood at last with that drunken figure lying on the floor
+between them. She knew the truth at once in his quick exclamation, and
+then everything under sun and stars seemed to slip away and leave them
+face to face. &quot;Eustace and she.&quot; &quot;Eustace and me.&quot; The low rush of the
+waves caught the refrain and repeated it ceaselessly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't be alarmed; you had better go away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She heard the words as in a dream, scarcely recognizing the voice in
+its harsh passion. &quot;Stay, he shall not remain here; not here in your
+room.&quot; Then she felt his hands grip hers, and the voice rang with
+fierce resentment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! Maud! that this should have come to you--to you of all people.
+By heaven, it is too much. I will not bear it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laughed suddenly and broke from him. &quot;You mean that he has
+taken too much whiskey. Well! plenty of men do that, and you others
+think--think none--none the worse.&quot; Then she broke down, flinging her
+arms across the bed by which she had been standing. &quot;Oh, my God! what
+shall I do? what shall I do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her outburst calmed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go into the other room, dear; I will call some one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned on him as she knelt like a wild animal at bay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No! not the servants! no one shall know. I will not have it. Let me
+help. I am quite strong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think I'd let you touch him?&quot; he burst out. &quot;Go! I'll manage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She crept away, cowed by his vehemence, overcome by the desire to obey
+which subdues most women when the command is from one they love. Back
+to the fire she had left so short a time ago. It was dull now, but a
+touch sent the responsive flames leaping up the chimney. Would any
+amount of care restore that confidence in herself which but an hour
+ago had defied fate? Eustace and she--Eustace and me. What evil chance
+was this?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She started from a maze of confused fear at his knock at her door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A light, please. You have no bed here, and none of the other rooms
+are fit for you to-night; so I have brought this. I had to leave
+him--there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should you trouble?&quot; she asked drearily, with lack-lustre eyes on
+his burden of blankets and pillows. &quot;I can so easily sit up; it must
+be near morning now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He gave her a look so full of passionate adoration that her eyes fell
+before it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think I am going to let you suffer one little bit--one atom of
+discomfort because of <i>him?</i> No, that shall not be; you shall never
+suffer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can you help it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can you ask? We may have made a mistake, Maud; perhaps we
+<i>hav'n't</i> God knows. But if we have, why then--&quot; He came over to where
+she was standing and took her hands in his. So they stood, those two
+alone, with nothing between them save a conscience which could be
+turned aside; every barrier raised by the world broken down by a
+strange fate, by a mere turn of the tide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, dear,&quot; he said, stooping to kiss her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She made no reply, no protest; perhaps in her heart of hearts she knew
+that he said the truth. That if it was a mistake, why then--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The waves caught up that refrain also, as she lay with wide, sleepless
+eyes on the little camp-bed with which his care had provided her. &quot;It
+is a mistake--you shall not suffer--it is a mistake--you shall not
+suffer.&quot;<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">III</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">When she woke next morning, a be-capped and be-aproned upper housemaid
+was bringing in her early cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, milady, we 'ave hall come. Mr. 'Ooper 'e 'ave come too, milady.
+Indeed, if it 'adn't bin for Mr. 'Ooper, we should 'ave bin picking
+hup cattle in that horful Minch till hevenin'; but 'e took it on
+'imself to tell the capting as master would willin' pay hextra for us
+to come as quick as might be. And thankful we was, milady, for some of
+us mightn't 'ave lived to see land.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jane looked as if she certainly would have been one of those to
+succumb, and Lady Maud gave a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell Hooper to go to his master,--he wasn't very well last
+night,--and tell Josephine I shall breakfast in my room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. 'Ooper 'ave gone to master,&quot; replied Jane in a voice which
+implied that the reminder was unnecessary; &quot;and if you please, milady,
+Capting Weeks 'e 'ave come too. We picked 'im up with some cattle in a
+boat from some place as begins with an 'Hoich.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud gave another sigh of relief. The sand-bags of civilization
+were a great protection after all; and if Captain Weeks had come,
+Eustace would go out shooting with him. That would give her a whole
+day to face the situation. Honestly, she thought far more of possible
+difficulties with him than with her husband. The shock had been
+terrible at the time, but perhaps, after all, it was an isolated
+offence. Heaps of men in society got drunk decently out of sight of
+their legal womenkind, and no one thought-- The recurrence of the
+phrase she had used the night before made her pause and hide her face
+in the pillow in sudden horror at herself and him. No! without going
+so far as that, one could still be rational. Edward was devoted to
+her, and if a wife by her influence made a better man of her husband,
+wherein lay the degradation? Last night--great heavens! what had come
+over her last night? She had been taken by surprise, placed in
+conditions which no one could possibly have foreseen, dragged by main
+force from every shelter. Her face burnt as she remembered, and yet
+how natural it had been! Natural and therefore absurd, ridiculous.
+To-day, however, was different, and so the little pencilled note from
+Eustace, which Josephine brought in with the breakfast, received no
+reply save a message to say she was perfectly well and hoped he would
+look after Captain Weeks, if Mr. Wilson was not able to go out. A bold
+parry, which made Eustace Gordon set his teeth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yes! to-day was different; a new heaven and a new earth. The very
+house transformed; for when she came down to lunch, the drawing-room
+was full of tables, screens, photographs, and ferns, while in the
+dining-room the butler stood ready to remove the silver covers, and so
+let loose the pent-up energies of two footmen who, with bent heads,
+seemed waiting for some one to say grace. Mr. Gordon, the report ran,
+had taken Captain Weeks to the Carbost beat, and would not be back
+till late. Her ladyship was to open any telegram which might come, as
+it would relate to the yacht. Mr. Wilson had gone to shoot rock-pigeon
+with the head keeper. The professor was exploring, and begged her
+ladyship not to wait lunch for him. So said the butler gravely as he
+filled her glass. Through the window she could see the Atlantic
+guiltless of a white feather, and her own courage rose with the
+outlook. As she strolled about the heathery knolls after lunch, a boy
+on a pony appeared with the expected telegram. &quot;Started, should be
+with you to-morrow.&quot; So that was an end of one trouble. Then Cynthia
+Strong and some others were to come by the next boat. Will Lockhart
+was cruising about the coast and might look in on them at any time.
+There would be no more solitude; not even to-day, since there across
+the moor came Miss Macdonald, attired for calling, and beside her that
+good-looking young sailor. Lady Maud liked boys, especially handsome
+ones with palpable adoration in their blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The professor, coming in very hot about tea-time, found the trio
+having it like children out in a bieldy bit by the burn, but with the
+butler solemnly presiding over the fire. A fire which gave James, the
+under footman, the hugest delight until his enjoyment was crushed out
+of him by his superior officer. For the butler knew his duty:
+afternoon tea was afternoon tea wherever her ladyship chose to take
+it; that is to say, a function at which a footman must preserve an
+impassive face. So poor James put on the sticks with funeral calm and
+burnt his fingers with great decorum.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is a lady, professor,&quot; said Lady Maud,--&quot;Miss
+Macdonald--Professor Endorwick,--who will tell you everything you can
+possibly want to know about the island. She is a mine of useful
+information; at least I have found her so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That gracious voice, face, and manner had been a sort of rapture to
+young Rick Halmar for the last half hour, and when, after launching
+the others into conversation, she turned to him with the undefinable
+change in manner she could no more avoid in talking to men than the
+magnet can keep its influence, his heart gave quite a throb.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I didn't introduce you,&quot; she said, smiling, &quot;because I only know your
+Christian name; and I'm not sure of that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rick! Rick Halmar,&quot; he replied with a blush which took him by
+surprise; for he was not as a rule self-conscious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rick?&quot; she echoed curiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Eric. My father was a Norwegian. But it was a boshy name and the
+fellows on the <i>Britannia</i> called me 'Little by Little'--after the
+book, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laughed. &quot;A very inappropriate name, Mr. Halmar. You must be six
+feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shook his head. &quot;Five feet eleven and three-quarters. It's too big
+for a sailor. You get in the way of the ropes and things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not too big for a man--but listen! the professor is overcome already;
+how delightful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In good sooth he was actually reduced to the position of listener, an
+isolated assertion of interest being all the speech allowed him as
+Miss Willina waxed eloquent over the crass superstitions of the
+islanders and her own select beliefs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick's face grew brimful of smiles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aunt Will is as bad as the best, herself. Why, the other day I carved
+out a sort of devil,--a thing they worship in the Caribbees,--and she
+was in quite a taking because it was left out on a <i>harp</i>,--that's a
+Viking's tomb, Lady Maud. She has some rigmarole about 'tribute to the
+dead,' their sending back things to work evil to the living. But, do
+you know, Lady Maud, it's awfully rum, but I couldn't find the thing
+when I went to look for it yesterday morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You couldn't find it? Mr. Halmar, don't speak loud; don't
+attract their attention by looking surprised! Was it--the devil, I
+mean--fearfully ugly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The best I ever made.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Had it white eyes with a shot stuck in them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lady Maud! did you find it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not I, but the professor did. It's a footstep of a discredited
+belief, and he is going to lecture on it to the British Association.
+Isn't it perfectly lovely? How we shall all laugh!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you will tell him, of course?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell him! Why should I? These things are one of my chief joys in
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick Halmar winced. &quot;But don't you see, Lady Maud, it's my fault more
+or less? I oughtn't to go carving devils and leaving them about. It
+isn't fair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She raised her eyebrows. &quot;When you are older, Mr. Halmar, you won't be
+so eager to accept responsibility. By the way, does yours extend to
+another devil of the same sort which was found on Gr�da Sands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He let his head drop into his hands in comic despair. &quot;How one's sins
+<i>do</i> find one out! It must be the one Aunt Will flung into the Minch.
+Everything comes round sooner or later to the sands. Has the professor
+got it too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Mr. Halmar. <i>I</i> have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You! Oh, Lady Maud--I am sorry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You well may be. I have put it into my own room because the professor
+declared it was genuine--a real savage fate. No--that isn't true, so
+don't distress yourself. I took a fancy to it. I have a habit of
+taking fancies to <i>things</i> and to <i>people</i>; so there it shall remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick's face lit up. &quot;Let me make you a better one,&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I said, Mr. Halmar, that I took a fancy to <i>it</i>; and now, don't you
+think you should make your confession like a good boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He made it very prettily, but with a frank enjoyment of the mistake,
+which was infectious. So much so, that the chief sufferer, stimulated
+into unusual playfulness by Miss Willina's wit, actually went into the
+house for his discredited belief and brought it out for her to burn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So, with much laughter, they stood round the fire, causing poor James
+almost to burst under his efforts after dignity, till suddenly, with
+something between a chuckle and a cough, the butler himself gave way
+into the remark that &quot;I 'adn't made a Guy Forks--<i>kck-kh-kh</i>--since 'e
+was a boy,--<i>kh-kh-kh</i>,--but if 'er ladyship pleased, Jeames could run
+round to the gun-room for some powder and 'e'd 'ave some squibs ready
+in no time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So Numbo Jumbo was burnt with all the honours, and the butler, going
+back for his own tea to the housekeeper's room, hummed, &quot;Remember,
+remember, the fifth of November,&quot; until the cook, with a snort, asked
+wherever to goodness he had picked up such a vulgar ditty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now I have no doubt all you learned people think me very foolish,&quot;
+said Miss Willina, drawing on her gloves with the air of one who has
+completed a good work; &quot;but I really am immensely relieved in my mind.
+I had a presentiment about that devil of Rick's; besides, these old
+superstitions invariably have their origin in some fundamental fact or
+law of Nature. Don't you think so, professor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Undoubtedly, my dear madam; the Folklore Society--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Miss Willina had a profound contempt for all societies and
+proclaimed it cheerfully. &quot;Therefore, the only remaining thing to be
+done,&quot; she continued, shaking her head at Rick, &quot;is to make
+restitution for that naughty boy's mischief. So, if you will walk over
+to Eval some day, Mr. Endorwick, I will give you that bone ring with
+the Runic inscription about which I was telling you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear lady,&quot; cried the professor with greed in his eyes, &quot;I really
+could not dream--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't want to give it to <i>you</i>, of course,&quot; she went on frankly;
+&quot;but my brother says it should be in a museum; so you can put 'Given
+by Miss Macdonald through Professor Endorwick' on the ticket. And, by
+the bye, it was found on Gr�da and Malcolm, Aig says.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile Lady Maud had turned to Rick with a quizzical smile. &quot;Do you
+accept the responsibility of my fate, Mr. Halmar? or shall I have a
+private <i>auto-da-fe</i> in my room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy's face positively shone with pleasure as he took her hand to
+say goodbye.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I couldn't do anything that would bring you harm, I think--you are
+too--too beautiful.&quot; The absolute simplicity of the statement rendered
+it inoffensive, and Lady Maud laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take your nephew away, Miss Macdonald; he is paying me compliments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't wonder at it,&quot; retorted the little lady, nodding her head,
+&quot;and compliments are pleasant things; at least, I used to find them
+so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why employ the past tense, dear lady?&quot; said the professor with a bow,
+as he shook hands, whereat Miss Willina declared that the only safety
+lay in flight; and Lady Maud, as she went back to the house, told
+herself once more that to-day was very different from yesterday. This
+background of <i>persiflage</i>, with just a serious touch here and there
+to help out the chiaro-oscuro, suited figures in modern dress.
+Tailor-made figures guiltless of a wrinkle and oblivious of vitality's
+claim for an uncrushed organ or two.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If her ladyship please,&quot; said Josephine, when the dressing bell
+brought her to her mistress' room, &quot;Mr. 'Ooper, he desire a few word
+of milady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hooper! didn't they say he had gone with Mr. Wilson?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Monsieur 'ave just return; Mr. Gordon also wid Capitaine Veek
+and--<i>Mon Dieu! quel gibier!</i> Sall I bid him come?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud, at the writing-table, rested her head on her hand, feeling
+a sudden need of courage. They had all come back, and some things must
+be faced before life could run smoothly once more. Eustace must be
+made to understand that there was to be no drifting, and her husband
+must consent to let her hand be on the tiller ropes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Hooper?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rather a diffident-looking man; nervous too in his manner. &quot;I am sorry
+to have to trouble your ladyship, but I think Dr. Haddon would wish
+it, under the circumstances. It is about master, your ladyship.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her heart gave a great throb. &quot;Your master, Hooper? Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The diffident man, holding on to the doorknob as for support, cleared
+his throat. &quot;It is a little difficult, my lady, and Mr. Gordon, when
+he spoke to me, was for saying nothing; but I have been considering
+the matter and I think Dr. Haddon--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is Dr. Haddon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was not quite sure if your ladyship knew--anything. But master was
+under Dr. Haddon for a time. It--it is for the liquor habit, my lady,
+and Dr. Haddon is most successful. He was most successful with master.
+Four years I have been with him since we came back from America, and
+never till last night--&quot; he coughed slightly and paused. Lady Maud
+sate staring at him without a word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am very sorry, my lady. The other servants will tell you how
+distressed I was to be absent from my duty. It arose from my not
+understanding the porter's accent, my lady; but it will not occur
+again. I mean, my lady, that--ahem--nothing of the sort will occur
+again. So there is no need for--for distress or anxiety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mean that as long as--as you are with Mr. Wilson--&quot; so far she
+managed in a cold hard voice; then came silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just so, my lady--it is a question of influence. I undertake the
+entire responsibility. There is really no cause for alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That--that will do, Hooper; you can go.&quot; Her one thought was to get
+rid of this man, this servant, who seemed to have reached out his
+common hand and touched her very soul. He paused, still with his hand
+on the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg pardon, my lady, but there is one thing. Dr. Haddon's system is
+based on influence. It does not allow any appeal to--ahem--to the
+moral sense. Therefore, if your ladyship could kindly treat the
+mistake of yesterday with silence, it would be better--for the system.
+Dr. Haddon ignores failure on principle, it--it is part of the system;
+and any interference may be dangerous. Therefore, if your ladyship--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I quite understand. You can go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she was left alone, she sate staring on at the door he had closed
+behind him. Behind whom? why the man who--oh! it was an impossible, an
+incredible, position! She had married her husband without caring for
+him, but she had married him also because she intended that he
+<i>should</i> care for her. And now! What was he but a puppet, dependent
+on this man? She had not married Edward Wilson, but Wilson-cum-Haddon,
+-cum-Hooper. And Eustace knew it! Her husband, the possible father of
+her children! She had known all along that he was a weak man, but that
+the very possibility of his living decently lay in the will of another
+was hopeless, horrible degradation. She had often in society talked
+lightly of the part hypnotism was to play in the future regeneration
+of the world; but now that even a suspicion of it touched her inner
+life, it left her in wild revolt. When all was said and done, that man
+to whom they paid so many pounds a year was master of her fate. It
+should never be! Better, far better, that her husband should be drunk;
+and yet what right had she to interfere?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will be too late to make milady <i>charmante</i>,&quot; suggested Josephine,
+coming in, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stood up hastily with clenched hands. Eustace should not see her
+degradation--she would show him--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is plenty of time,&quot; she said coldly. &quot;Put on my diamonds,
+Josephine--that dress is dull. They can wait if I am not ready.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was worth waiting for, and Mr. Wilson's weak face brightened as
+she went up to him with easy grace. &quot;Did you have a good day, Edward?
+I saw Hooper for a moment, but I forgot to ask him about the sport.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She failed in her object for all her bravado. The eyes she sought to
+blind saw too clearly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So Louisa comes to-morrow,&quot; she said lightly, as, after keeping all
+the men, her husband included, at her feet during the evening, she
+rose to say good-night and let her hand linger purposely in her
+cousin's, so that he should see she did not care, that she was not
+afraid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; he replied coldly; &quot;I've had another wire. She came as far as
+Portree, and, hearing that the gathering is next week, decided to stay
+and show off her new dresses. She got about a ton of them in Paris if
+you remember, and women, even the best of them, love to show off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His tone roused her to reckless resentment by its assumption of
+knowledge and condemnation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He does not look very sorry for his wife's decision, does he,
+professor?&quot; she asked with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear lady, how could he be sorry for anything, in his present
+position?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or I in mine?&quot; she retorted, giving a little mock curtsey over the
+hand she still held.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eustace Gordon bit his lip, but said nothing.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">IV</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You look worried,&quot; said Will Lockhart; &quot;the place doesn't suit you. I
+told you it wouldn't when we hid behind Charity. Is there anything
+really the matter?&quot; his voice took a softer tone, &quot;anything I could
+help you to set straight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were sitting by the fire in Lady Maud's little sitting-room,
+whither they had retired from the bustle inseparable from tea in the
+drawing-room when bad weather keeps even the sportsmen indoors. He
+said the truth; she looked worn and fagged, and her pose as she leant
+back in her easy-chair was one of listless fatigue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! There is nothing the matter; nothing more than the usual
+worries of a hostess in tiresome weather. To begin with, it has
+prevented your coming here till you can only spare us a miserable day
+on your way to rejoin the yacht. Then Louisa, after wasting a fine
+week over the Portree gathering, was detained there ten days by storm.
+Finally, just as she started for the Highlands one at Inverness <i>pour
+passer le temps</i>, it cleared up. Since then it has been what is called
+unsettled; most of all for poor Eustace, who never knows for two days
+together what is going to happen. Then Lady Liddell caught cold at a
+picnic, and Cynthia Strong, whom I invited for the professor,--a
+Girtonite you know, does mathematics and all that,--seems uncertain
+whether she doesn't prefer Arthur Weeks, a man who hasn't a penny and
+can't do a sum beyond the compound addition of his bills.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A catalogue of evils, certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That isn't all. The professor, who would make her an excellent
+husband, being in that set and with a charming house too at Oxford,
+does nothing but go over to Eval House to see Miss Macdonald--you knew
+her once, I think--well, he looks on her as an encyclop�dia of
+discredited beliefs, a unique copy of an ancient work on folk-lore
+which the lucky finder is bound to purchase. Besides, she has a
+valuable collection--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When I knew her,&quot; broke in Will Lockhart hotly, &quot;she did not need any
+adventitious attractions; she was simply the loveliest--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud's languid hands met in faint applause.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought that would draw you. So she was the <i>mauvais quart
+d'heure</i>. I am not really laughing, so don't be angry; only from the
+way she spoke of you--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did she speak of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can you ask? And women never speak of the men who have loved them
+in the same tone of voice they use for the dense, indiscriminating
+multitude who didn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then Miss Macdonald's voice must change pretty often.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! was that it? you were jealous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing so romantic. We quarrelled over some bread and butter--we
+were very young. Then circumstances favoured absence, so forgetfulness
+came, or at least indifference, absolute indifference.&quot; He paused for
+a moment. &quot;And so the professor is there constantly, is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud smiled behind the fan with which she screened her face from
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is there now, I expect. He went dune-hunting in the south this
+morning, and was to stop there for the night. Thought he might be
+late; besides, he must consult the encyclop�dia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Will Lockhart frowned. &quot;This has made us drift from the point. Your
+husband, does he like the place?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Apparently. And the servants are satisfied too, which is a great
+gain. They get all their work done for them by the natives. It is an
+immense relief to shift one's responsibilities to other folks'
+shoulders, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked at her sharply. &quot;There <i>is</i> something the matter. Is it only
+other people's love-affairs? And what, for instance, of that handsome
+boy downstairs who does Sir Walter Raleigh's cloak for your Majesty's
+feet all day long?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud leant forward eagerly, her whole face alight. &quot;You mean
+Rick. Do you remember once, when you were very angry with me, saying I
+was enough to ruin any man in a week? It wasn't true, Big Bear. I
+couldn't spoil Rick Halmar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you tried and failed?&quot; he asked cynically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shook her head and a soft half-smiling, half-tearful look came to
+her pretty eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You don't know him, and I can't explain. Yet I tell you that I
+couldn't spoil one of that dear lad's happy days unless--&quot; she broke
+off suddenly, raising her eyes to the image on the mantelshelf. &quot;He
+carved that devil up there,&quot; she went on with the smile gaining on the
+tears. &quot;The professor said it was a savage conception of fate, but it
+isn't. It is Rick Halmar's conception of my fate, and that--well, that
+hasn't much of the devil in it. Come! it is time I was returning to my
+duties as hostess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Time for me to be going also,&quot; he replied, looking at his watch. &quot;I
+have seven miles before me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not if you make use of the Eval ferryboat.&quot; She looked at him
+mischievously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not intend to make use of it, even to oblige you, Lady Maud. I
+might meet the professor, and then there would be a petty-assault
+case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course! How tiresome you are! I counted on your being here a week
+at least, and people can unmake ever so many quarrels in seven days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or make them. But the elements are too strong for you, Lady Maud. I
+told you so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick Halmar came up as, still smiling over the joke, they entered the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm so glad. I was afraid you might not come before I left, and I
+must go soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you can pilot Mr. Lockhart a little way. He has to walk over to
+Carbost Bay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A good bit of the way, you mean,&quot; replied Rick, turning his bright
+face towards Will Lockhart's. &quot;Our ferry is far the shortest; in fact,
+it's the only road, for the upper-end bridge gave way in the flood
+last night and the stream isn't fordable yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud's eyebrows went up archly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a nuisance the elements are at times; aren't they, Mr.
+Lockhart?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should think so,&quot; assented Rick cheerfully. &quot;Why, we have been
+trying to get to Eilean-a-fa-ash these three weeks--haven't we, Lady
+Maud?--without catching a fine day and a suitable tide on the hop
+together. The sea ford might have done last spring, but it was too
+rough for the ladies to return by boat, or else too wet. But the first
+fine day. That is it, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Mr. Halmar!&quot; cried Cynthia Strong from the window seat where
+Captain Weeks was blissfully useful over a skein of wool. &quot;And please
+order the fine day soon, for I have to go by the next <i>Clansman</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I shall go too,&quot; murmured the captain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose the birds will be getting rather wild by that time,&quot;
+remarked the young lady tartly. Theoretically, she felt bound to
+despise her admirer and his occupations; practically, his murmurs made
+her heart beat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wild! Why, they lie like stones on this coast. Something to do with
+the Gulf Stream, I'm told, though I know nothing myself about these
+scientific things. But you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like chickens
+on the last day of the season.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And when is that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Captain Weeks laughed,--the true man's laugh of surprised tolerance.
+&quot;I thought you knew everything, Miss Strong; but I don't suppose they
+think it worth while to teach girls. It's the 10th of December for
+grouse, but partridges go on till the beginning of February, and
+there's no real close time for--&quot; His voice fell to the confidential
+tone. Eustace Gordon had meanwhile joined the trio at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes! let it be soon, please; for I may be going also. I've just
+heard, Maud, from Louisa, and the last idea is that I am to take the
+yacht, which she is sending here, round to Cowes, and that we are to
+start at once for less uncertain climes. The Mediterranean, most
+likely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is very--unexpected. But all my friends are flying south, like
+the swallows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I have to go furthest of all,&quot; said Rick ruefully. &quot;I'm booked
+for the Pacific Station, as sure as fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you must send me home a real Numbo Jumbo if you come across
+one,&quot; she replied, smiling up into his eager boyish face with a
+confidence absolutely free from all alloy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Won't I! and some of those jolly shells too; all the pretty things I
+can pick up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, Rick; I like pretty things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He flushed with pleasure at her tone and words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, good-bye,&quot; she said, turning to Will Lockhart. &quot;I hope the
+elements won't be too strong for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Confidence here also, but of a different sort,--the sort which can
+give a reason for the faith that is in it. It seemed, however, as if
+Lady Maud's wish was not to be fulfilled; for as Rick Halmar and his
+companion set off across the moor, the southwest wind, even at that
+distance from the shore, sent a shower of spindrift in their faces.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No leaving Carbost Bay for you tonight,&quot; shouted Rick against the
+wind. &quot;You had better stay at our place. You used to know Aunt Will
+long ago, didn't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but I must get on. It may calm any moment, and the yacht sails
+as soon as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nevertheless when, after scudding with the wind at their backs for two
+miles, they came upon the ferry, one glance showed even Will
+Lockhart's inexperienced eye that the cockleshell of a boat, bobbing
+up and down in the backwater, could never fight its way through that
+mad m�l�e of wind against tide in the middle of the narrow stream.
+Comparative calm reigned to one side in the inland loch, and to the
+other in the open sea; but here the waves leapt at each other in
+pyramids, sending jets of spray upwards with the very force of their
+meeting. A good thrower could easily have flung a stone across the
+channel; for all that, it was impassable till the tired tide should
+turn and join the wind in its race eastward. So, at any rate, said
+Rick, adding that his aunt would be delighted at a <i>contretemps</i> which
+would procure her a visit from an old friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Why Will Lockhart should have hesitated, when it was raining cats and
+dogs, and it was two-and-twenty years since he had parted in anger
+from the hot-headed, quick-tongued chit of eighteen, who was now, by
+all accounts, a brisk, contented woman of forty, is not easy of
+explanation. Perhaps the thought of Lady Maud's triumph rankled;
+perhaps, when all was said and done, he was not quite indifferent to
+that possible future with the professor. But he did hesitate for a
+moment. That early love-affair had strangely enough been his first and
+last: not because it was in itself absorbing, but because other things
+more absorbing than Love had stepped in to take possession of his
+life. For a year or two, no doubt, resentment had lingered, not very
+keenly felt, but sufficiently so to prevent other love-affairs. Then
+he had painted his first successful picture, and that had been an end
+of all things, save Art, and a rather unreal remembrance that he had
+loved and lost.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">However, common sense came to his aid, as it was bound to do in
+that drenching rain. And, after all, the professor was not in the
+well-remembered drawing-room whither Rick led him; neither was Miss
+Willina. Fortunately, perhaps, for her dignity, of which she was
+extremely tenacious, she had been in the potting-shed feeding a late
+brood of chickens presented to her that morning by an inexperienced
+young mother, who had preferred a bed of nettles behind the peat stack
+to the comforts of the hen-house nursery. So she had ample opportunity
+of seeing them pass up the ferry-path and of grasping the situation;
+to say nothing of smoothing her hair and washing her hands, before
+putting in an appearance; the which is a great support to most women
+in the crises of life. As a matter of fact, however, Miss Willina had
+never regarded this episode of her earliest years of conquest as one
+of supreme importance; perhaps some slight inkling that it really did
+mean more than she was prepared to admit was at the bottom of her
+deliberate want of romance on the subject. She had had many admirers,
+had them still for that matter; she was perfectly aware, for instance,
+of the professor's interest; but, for all that, she had never felt
+inclined to marry since those salad days when she had drowned her
+resentment in the knowledge that half the men who knew her were at her
+feet. Why should she marry? There was plenty of time and opportunity
+if she wished it; and then, when time passed, leaving her still Miss
+Macdonald, she told herself and every one else that it was of her own
+free will and pleasure. As it undoubtedly was. She scouted regrets,
+and only when the masterful current of her vitality slackened, as even
+hers had to do at times, did she wonder if that early love-affair had
+not been at the bottom of her cold-bloodedness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Will Lockhart did not think her much changed. The daintiness and
+wilfulness he chiefly remembered were still there, and it was like old
+times to hear her order him up with Rick, to &quot;change his feet,&quot; and
+see the swift touch with which she rescued an antimacassar from
+annihilation when he sate down. And this want of change depressed him,
+by emphasizing the long years which he could not forget.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There she was, much as he remembered her, and he--people told him also
+that he had changed but little. Yet in those old days it had seemed
+impossible to conceive of life apart, and here they were, both free,
+both unmarried, talking calmly, with a new generation for listener,
+about that past time. What had kept them separate except their own
+free will? Nothing! and yet had either of them deliberately
+anticipated this ending when they quarrelled over the bread and
+butter? And now she was thinking of the professor, or at any rate the
+professor was thinking of her. That was Lady Maud's account, and there
+was certainly a suspicion of consciousness when the learned man's name
+was mentioned; a palpable flush indeed, when a faint whistle overbore
+that of the wind, and she started from her chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rick! it can't surely be Mr. Endorwick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The blush made her look years younger, and Will Lockhart felt
+distinctly aggrieved at the fact.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By George, it is, though,&quot; replied her nephew, after a glance through
+the field-glasses which hung ready for the purpose on the window-knob.
+&quot;There he is on the other side of the stream. He has hoisted the flag,
+and is blowing away at the whistle like fits. His umbrella's inside
+out, and his mackintosh floating on the breeze. Do look, Aunt Will.
+It's awfully comic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Willina's face was a study of dignity and humour; the first
+prevailed. &quot;Eric! I am surprised at your levity. The poor man will be
+drenched to the skin, and he so delicate; such a distinguished scholar
+too; we could ill afford to lose him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give me the glass,&quot; said Will Lockhart grimly. The sight of his
+supposed successor signalling for the impossible gave him a thrill of
+satisfaction; for he, at least, was on the right side of the stream.
+And then to the keen little creature at his side came a mood well
+remembered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The born idiot! Any Christian would have stopped at the hotel even if
+he was wanting to come on. A fool for his pains! Ah! what's the use of
+blowing like a hooter with the wind and tide against you? Gracious
+goody! Rick, what's to be done? The gawk can't be left there like a
+windmill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The comparison was not inapt; for the professor, seeing them,
+doubtless, against the firelight within, was waving his arms
+frantically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll go down and signal him to that bieldy bit behind the big rock.
+It's out of the wind anyhow, and the tide will be turning before he
+could walk back to shelter. And I'll stop in the boat-house; it will
+comfort him to see me smoking, especially if he has forgotten his
+matches. Besides, I must put new rowlocks to the four-oar. We'll want
+her, and the men too, if any one is to cross the stream tonight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's a nice boy,&quot; said Will Lockhart, putting down the glasses as
+Rick's figure on its way to the boat-house blocked out the professor's
+increasing despair. &quot;Just about the age I was when--&quot; He paused and
+looked at his companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes! You were twenty-one, and I was eighteen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were standing close together, the firelight throwing their
+shadows out faintly against the growing darkness, but on their faces
+the dull autumn twilight lingered, blotting out all traces of the
+passage of time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He came a little nearer to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wonder why we quarrelled?&quot; he said argumentatively. &quot;I don't mean
+what we quarrelled about. That was never very difficult to find, was
+it? But why did we quarrel finally that last time? I don't recollect
+that you were more wilful than usual.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No doubt you were more aggravating,&quot; she retorted quickly. &quot;Do you
+wish to begin it all over again? I will if you've a mind to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Begin what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The quarrel, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, thank you. There's the professor hauling down his flag; he has
+seen Rick, and acknowledged his defeat. Good man! Don't you think,
+Miss Macdonald, that it would be more comfortable by the fire than
+here at the window?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More comfortable than the professor is, poor man. That is what you
+mean. How selfish all you men are, and then you expect me not to see
+through you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't think I ever was quite so <i>exigeant</i> as that, was I? And, do
+you know, I rather wish you would just cast your eye over my innermost
+thoughts at the present moment. It would save me beating about the
+bush.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Perhaps, despite her outward calm, she was a little excited; for she
+had taken up her knitting, half mechanically, and now the needles
+clashed fast and furious. He was leaning towards her, his elbows on
+his knees, his hands loosely clasped together, and something of his
+youth, not so much in its romance as in its imperious desire to know
+and understand, was in his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Macdonald, I've no right to ask, but are you going to
+marry--that man on the other side?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She gave a little conscious laugh, half-nervous, half-gratified. &quot;That
+is what you call beating about the bush, I suppose? Why--why should I
+marry anybody?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the life of him he could not tell, save that in a vague way that
+dead past seemed so pitiful: because it was dead and past. &quot;Why did we
+quarrel?&quot; he repeated. &quot;If the <i>Clansman</i> hadn't come in unexpectedly
+that evening after her time, and so given me an opportunity of going
+off in the sulks, we should have made it up as usual. It seems such a
+little thing to come between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laid down her knitting and looked at him thoughtfully. A woman
+less truthful than Miss Willina might have allowed the inevitable
+satisfaction of being remembered to give an extra tinge of regret and
+romance to that past, which in sober fact had had little of either;
+but Miss Willina's sense of humour was of the rare kind which is not
+blunted by egotism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ridiculously little. In the novels--I read dozens of them in the
+winter--it is always something pathetic. A letter left in a blotting
+book, or a wrong initial on the envelope, or a false announcement of
+marriage. Something not to be foreseen or helped. Or if it isn't the
+fault of fate, they get brain fever and forget their own names. But
+we! We just quarrelled, and didn't care to make it up. It isn't in the
+least romantic, I'm afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we didn't forget,&quot; he said in the same argumentative tone. &quot;At
+least I didn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course not. Does any one ever forget,--absolutely?&quot; Her voice
+trembled slightly. The pathos of memory was not to be ignored
+entirely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It seems such a pity--you and I leading such lonely lives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lonely? You should see my Noah's Ark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well! Don't scoff at me. I suppose it is absurd, but to-night
+somehow--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She interrupted him with a soft hand laid on his. &quot;Don't, please
+don't. It is like children trying to pretend that their shadows on the
+wall are alive. But they are shadows; nothing but shadows, and the
+light which throws them--&quot; she pointed to the window with a laugh that
+was half a sob. &quot;Poor man! he ought to be extinguished by this time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps you are right,&quot; he replied sadly, still holding her hand;
+&quot;but it seems hard--the shadows were so pretty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so pretty as the reality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That we have met and forgiven each other--without payment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aunt Will,&quot; shouted Rick, bursting into the room, &quot;there's the
+professor in the front hall dripping like a drowned rat. I got the men
+and ferried him over on the first chance; now they are waiting for Mr.
+Lockhart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Willina was on her feet in a moment. &quot;Take him upstairs, Rick,
+and put him to bed--between the blankets. I'll come directly with
+gruel and mustard. And, Rick! give him a good scrub--all over--with
+the roughest--bath towel--you can find.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last directions were called up the stairs as she went into the
+hall to see Will Lockhart put on his mackintosh properly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-bye, Miss Macdonald. I'm not in the least envious of the
+professor's immediate future,&quot; he said with smiling eyes, but with
+vague regrets still at his heart. &quot;I'm glad, though, he was at the
+other side of the stream to-night. I liked the shadows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And the reality?&quot; she asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stooped and kissed the pretty little hand browned by sun and wind.
+&quot;It is like the breath of your sea. The memory of it will help to blow
+away the cobwebs until I come back--in the summer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The summer is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not St. Martin's, and one often has a spell of fine weather late in
+the year when the earlier portions have been stormy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shook her head.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">V</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Hooper, what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud stood at bay once more, with that diffident-looking man at
+the door. Three weeks had passed since his first interview; only three
+weeks, and it seemed to her an eternity of fear and anxiety. But now
+the letters written in reply to hers had come from the American
+doctor, and she knew the worst. Mr. Wilson's case had at once been
+easy and difficult. Easy because of his singular lack of will power;
+difficult for the same reason, joined to a very bad ancestral record.
+So bad that his maternal uncle, from whom he had inherited his large
+fortune, being deeply resentful of the treatment his sister had
+endured from her drunken husband, had burdened his legacy with certain
+unusual conditions as to sobriety and control. Consequently, when,
+shortly after his release from the restraints of minority, the
+inherited tendency had shown itself in Mr. Wilson, he had voluntarily
+placed himself in Dr. Haddon's charge, urged to the step by his fear
+of pecuniary loss. That was, briefly, the whole story, save that he,
+Dr. Haddon, continued to have charge of the case and would be obliged
+if Lady Maud would co-operate with him in continuing a system which
+had hitherto been so successful, and which, he did not scruple to add,
+was Mr. Wilson's only chance of fulfilling the conditions under which
+he held his fortune. For himself, he believed there was no danger of a
+relapse; it might even be possible after some years to relax the
+supervision, and in any case he begged her to remember that the
+hereditary tendency must needs be weakened by a generation even of
+enforced sobriety. He had hoped that there might be no necessity for
+her to be made acquainted with these circumstances, as the whole
+affair had been dealt with in the strictest confidence, and the
+essence of his treatment lay in ignoring the difficulty; but now that
+the untoward event reported by Hooper had occurred, it was better she
+should clearly understand the position of affairs. Briefly, he was
+paid for keeping Mr. Wilson from losing a very large portion of his
+wealth. Apart from that, it was an interesting case. In regard to
+Hooper, he was thoroughly trustworthy and conscientious,--a most
+necessary thing when influence was easy to attain. At the same time,
+if Hooper failed to commend himself to Lady Maud, he could be
+replaced. In view of the heavy stake at issue, however, he would
+recommend extreme caution in making any change. As for his reasons for
+allowing Mr. Wilson to marry under the circumstances, they were
+manifold; and his belief in the system was so great that he felt
+confident Lady Maud would never find cause for blame in her husband's
+conduct. The letter, in its bald statement of fact, its assumption of
+a perfectly satisfactory state of affairs, carried with it a sort of
+cold comfort. And yet Lady Maud felt a wild revolt against it such as
+no verdict of disease or death would have aroused.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Like most women who marry men to whom they are indifferent, she had
+looked forward, odd as it may seem, to having children who would give
+a zest to an otherwise insipid life. And now the mere possibility was
+a terror: not in pity for those who might come handicapped into the
+race, but from sheer physical horror that they should be his and hers.
+And this terror came uppermost in the first few minutes of shock.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have heard from Dr. Haddon this morning, my lady. In future I am to
+take my orders from you; so I have come to ask for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The disapproval in his tone was audible. She felt a rash, resentful
+desire to bid him go and leave her free, but the doctor's warning
+checked the words. What if she should have burdened her life for
+nothing,--she who had refused money again and again because it seemed
+vulgar to her fastidiousness? She might appeal to her husband as a
+man, chance her influence against the Hooper-Haddon system; but what
+if she failed? During those last three weeks she had silenced the
+heart which, despite all her efforts, would have its way, by
+protestations that she was only awaiting the doctor's reply, that by
+and by she would no longer consent to be this man's wife on these
+terms. To live on as if she knew nothing; to give neither help nor
+condemnation; to acquiesce without a word in a future which filled her
+with shame and horror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she knew the facts, she would decide, and now she knew too much.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no orders,&quot; she said in a low voice; &quot;no new ones; you can
+go.&quot; Then suddenly a thought flashed through her and she arrested him
+with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my lady?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still she was silent, one hand gripping the edge of the table, her
+breath coming fast. &quot;I do not think--this place--is good for Mr.
+Wilson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, your ladyship,&quot; broke in Hooper, relieved, &quot;I have thought so
+myself,--the--the irregular habits in regard to spirits are trying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think he would be better away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Exactly so, my lady; only I did not like--all the arrangements being,
+as it were, settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her voice had gained in steadiness by this time. &quot;There need be no
+alteration. I should remain here, of course.&quot; She paused, and Hooper
+shifted uneasily. &quot;Mr. Wilson had an invitation to Perthshire
+yesterday. I should <i>like</i> him to accept it. Do you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But indeed, my lady, I cannot. To begin with, I am not allowed by Dr.
+Haddon--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stopped him angrily. &quot;If you cannot obey me, there are others--so
+Dr. Haddon says. I consider this place is bad for Mr. Wilson, and it
+is my wish he should leave it. Do you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the life of her, try after calmness as she would, entreaty and
+despair made her command falter. He must go--if only to give her time
+to think; time to settle what course she would choose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If your ladyship takes the responsibility--in regard to Dr. Haddon, I
+mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I take it all--the responsibility for everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I will suggest it. I may not succeed; but I will do my best, and
+if I fail, your ladyship must remember that I was not engaged for such
+work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The grotesqueness of it all struck her sense of humour despite the
+turmoil of emotion in which she found herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; she said impatiently; &quot;I will remember it was not your
+place!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he had gone, she stood for some time without moving, her hand
+still grasping the table, body and mind alike in a state of tension.
+Then her nerves seemed to slacken, the spirit to leave her. She walked
+listlessly towards the fire, and, leaning her arms on the mantelpiece,
+rested her head upon them. So standing, the little curls about her
+temples outlined themselves against the ugliness of Rick Halmar's
+devil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not all my fault,&quot; she muttered with a sort of sob; &quot;not all my
+fault, surely. I must have time. I must have time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The rest of the day was torture to her. She did not regret the sudden
+impulse which had decreed her husband's exile, if it could be managed,
+yet she dreaded to have him say the words which would proclaim the
+success of her treachery against him. He came over once to where she
+sate in the twilight pretending to read, and laid his hand
+affectionately on her shoulder. It was only some trivial remark he had
+to make, but she started so visibly that Eustace, watching her, as he
+had watched her every mood during those weeks, came to her afterwards
+with a frown.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter, Maud? Why should you keep me at arm's length?
+Surely I know too much for that already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you know?&quot; she asked with the recklessness which of late had
+crept into her manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know you are unhappy. Do you remember what I told you that night?
+You shall not suffer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her lips trembled, and she turned from him hastily to join a group
+gathered round the professor. He had come back from Eval House greatly
+depressed in spirits, and with a running cold in his head, which
+Cynthia Strong was treating with pulsatilla, as yet rather
+unsuccessfully; but it required time, she explained, when the first
+stages had been badly managed on the old methods. The group was
+engaged in examining the famous Rhine ring, with which gift,
+apparently, Miss Willina had tried to content the learned man; but
+even its possession failed to comfort him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have deciphered the inscription,&quot; he said gloomily. &quot;It is,
+briefly, 'Order, Truth, Honesty.' The last word bears many side
+meanings, and perhaps Purity would be a better translation. All the
+terminations being feminine, it may be inferred that the ring was worn
+by a woman; possibly one of unusual worth. It may even have been a
+badge of virtue; a tribute paid by the community to merit, or by the
+lover to his beloved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If he had said a funeral memento to the dead, his voice could not have
+been more lugubrious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How interesting!&quot; murmured Cynthia Strong. &quot;Even in those days the
+mental qualities were deemed superior to mere physical attractions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg your pardon,&quot; retorted the professor quite tartly. &quot;Order, as
+used here, means complete, perfect; according to our modern speech,
+beautiful. Truth has also a secondary meaning. A free, but at the same
+time accurate, translation would be 'Beautiful, constant, chaste.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick Halmar was twisting the ring about in his strong deft hands. &quot;I
+expect some beggar gave it to his wife,&quot; he said cheerfully. &quot;It must
+have been just as jolly then as now to have somebody to stick by you
+through thick and thin. To have the dinner ready, and not swear if you
+hadn't done what you ought to have done. Not brought in enough fish
+for the kids, for instance; though how they ever caught any with those
+bone hooks, I can't think. I couldn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must remember the great incentive of hunger,&quot; remarked the
+professor in the same tone. &quot;Besides, in those days dexterity in the
+chase was the master key to a woman's affections.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I say, Weeks, old man! why weren't you born then?&quot; cried Rick,
+happily unconscious of all complications.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never had any luck,&quot; muttered the other, &quot;except with the birds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Luck! I like that! You call it luck when you never miss; I assure
+you, Miss Strong,&quot; he continued, going up to where the despondent
+captain was standing, and addressing the nearest lady, &quot;I was out with
+him yesterday, and he made me feel such a duffer. The prettiest
+shooting, and then he calls it luck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Cynthia Strong looked from one to the other of those two vigorous
+young faces before her, and then at the professor's pale one. A cold
+in the head is not becoming, and she sighed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick, with the ring still in his possession, returned to Lady Maud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Isn't it quaint?&quot; he said. &quot;Don't you wish I could find another?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it would be yours, of course. How small it looks! I wonder if
+it would fit you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Macdonald found it too large for her,&quot; remarked the professor,
+still more gloomily; &quot;but it would be interesting, Lady Maud, to try
+whether it points to any improvement or deterioration--physical, of
+course--in the race.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps you ladies would not mind experimenting 'Cinderella and the
+little glass slipper,'&quot; laughed Eustace Gordon. &quot;What is to be the
+prize, Endorwick--the ring?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear sir,&quot; gasped the professor, horrified for once out of his
+gallantry, &quot;it's unique--positively unique.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll tell you what,&quot; put in Rick eagerly, &quot;if the professor will lend
+it to me for a couple of days, I'll copy it in silver. A florin would
+make it, and the inscriptions only scratched on. So now, then, ladies,
+if you please. Weeks, you do herald. Lady Maud, may we use the banner
+screen as a tabard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a boy that is!&quot; said fat Lady Liddell to her next-door
+neighbour. &quot;I've been here a fortnight, and never saw him out of
+temper or out of spirits. So different from most young people
+nowadays, who won't take the trouble to enjoy themselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew it wouldn't go on anybody's finger but yours,&quot; said Rick with
+joyous confidence to his goddess when the competition was over.
+&quot;Perhaps it wasn't quite fair, because I'd seen Aunt Will try it on so
+often, and her hands are tiny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud shook her head gravely. &quot;I'm afraid it wasn't quite fair;
+but you must make me the ring, for all that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course I'll make it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She put her hand on his suddenly. &quot;Don't, Rick! don't! I mean&quot;--she
+paused, looking at him curiously--&quot;you may make it if you like, Rick;
+but I won't promise to wear it--always.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">VI</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We ought to have gone over to-day,&quot; said Eustace Gordon, looking out
+to where the low sandy line of Eilean-a-fa-ash lay like a golden clasp
+between the two headlands. The northern one bold, rocky, heathery; the
+southern, a mere spit of bent-covered shingle, curving hornlike from
+the great sweep of the Gr�da Sands beyond. It was sunset,--a cloudless
+sunset. Sky, and sea, and sand, bathed in a golden flood of light;
+only the shallow stretches of water left behind by the retreating tide
+glowing iridescent here and there like jewels. Far away, almost beyond
+sight, an edge of foam keeping time to a whispering cadence told where
+the Atlantic was hushing the shore to sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes!&quot; he went on lazily. &quot;We ought, but we didn't. That fellow Weeks
+is always on the slay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were seated, a party of five,--for the professor still lingered
+in the grip of cold,--on the base of the northern headland. There,
+amongst the rocks and heather, Lady Maud and Cynthia Strong had been
+making tea for the shooters. A brace of setters lay panting beside the
+game-bags; a faint whiff of smoke from behind a boulder told that the
+ghillies were enjoying themselves on their master's tobacco--sure sign
+of a good day's sport.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gorgeous weather,&quot; continued the same contented voice, &quot;a whole week
+of it; simply idyllic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ever since Mr. Wilson and the others left,&quot; assented Rick Halmar.
+&quot;Pity they went, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Wilson had to go,&quot; put in Lady Maud. &quot;The telegram from the works
+was urgent, and then the Collinghams' yacht happening to come in the
+same day made it so convenient. Quite a coincidence; one of those
+things no one could have foreseen.&quot; She spoke impatiently, almost in
+an aggrieved tone; and Eustace, as he lay on his back staring up into
+the sky, smiled to himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is very curious how such things happen,&quot; remarked Cynthia Strong;
+&quot;but that they are comparatively common is indubitable. The very
+proverbs in our language prove it.&quot; In the professor's absence she was
+apt to assume the mantle of his manner in order to annihilate poor
+Captain Weeks, in which object she generally succeeded. On this
+occasion, however, emboldened by a recent reception of some golden
+plovers' wings, for which her new tweed hat had been waiting, he
+ventured to put in his oar. &quot;The wish is father to the thought, for
+instance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing of the kind--&quot; began Miss Strong scornfully; but Lady Maud
+rose hastily and, standing a little apart, looked at Eilean-a-fa-ash,
+her hand shading her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us settle to go there to-morrow without fail,&quot; she said as if to
+change the subject.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not to-morrow, please,&quot; broke in Rick eagerly. &quot;To-morrow is Fast
+Day, and none of the ghillies will do a hand's turn. Besides, I have
+to drive Aunt Will to the preaching, as uncle won't. Put it off till
+the next day, Lady Maud. To begin with, it's my birthday, and then the
+tides are full spring. So we could come back by the sea ford. It is
+worth doing; nearly two miles with quicksands on either side,
+especially to the south.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, the day after to-morrow; that is, Friday certain; or some
+other coincidence will be carrying off the rest of my party.&quot; Still
+with her hand shading her eyes, she remained looking seawards, much in
+the same attitude as she had stood at the window a month before. This
+time her slight figure showed against the gold of sea and sky.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is that,&quot; she asked, &quot;like a mast--yonder and from the
+headland?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick, busy as usual with his knife, did not pause to look. &quot;It <i>is</i> a
+mast, Lady Maud. There is a wreck just to the south. Went ashore ever
+so long ago, but it is useful still as a sign-post. Up to that spar
+the sand is pretty safe--most times. Beyond that--by George! you
+should see it when the tide is coming in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! I don't mean the spar close in--yonder, far away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He came and stood by her. &quot;A yacht, I think, making, I should say, for
+Carbost. Come to carry some of us away, maybe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If it's for me,&quot; remarked Eustace, joining them, &quot;I don't intend to
+go. This is too good a time to be cut short. I haven't had such a good
+one since those old days at Lynmouth, Maud! And you too! Why, you are
+looking twice as well as you did--a week ago.&quot; There was meaning in
+his words; more in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fine weather always agrees with me,&quot; she replied hastily. &quot;Come,
+Rick, let us pick up the tea things and start home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yet in her heart of hearts she knew that Eustace was right. That past
+week had been a paradise of relief, and now it came perilously near to
+the time when the problem of her life must be faced. She had driven
+round it so far, had turned back deliberately when she found it
+barring the road, had claimed time to understand the position. What
+had she done towards a decision? Nothing! Nothing save bask in the
+immediate freedom; rejoice like any child in the fine weather, in
+Rick's open adoration, in her cousin's constant companionship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As she and the boy walked homewards together, these thoughts came
+again and again, whilst her nervous fingers busied themselves
+mechanically with the silver ring which he had made for her; a growing
+habit of which she was not aware.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does it hurt you?&quot; he asked tenderly. &quot;I can easily alter it, if it
+does.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shook her head with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I have seen you do that so often lately,&quot; he persisted; &quot;perhaps
+the inside is not quite smooth. Give it me, please, and I will set it
+right by Friday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't trouble. If it hurts, I can always take it off; can't I, dear?&quot;
+There was a sudden passion in her tone, a kind of pitiful reproach in
+her eyes. Rick looked at her, perturbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if it hurts--&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She put out her pretty hand and laid it on his, almost with a
+protecting gesture. &quot;Nothing you could do would hurt me, Rick. You
+said so the first time we met, and it is true. If it hurts, it is my
+own fault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That doesn't make any difference,&quot; he replied stoutly. &quot;Let me have
+it, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not to-day--on Friday, perhaps; <i>if it hurts</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were standing where the cross-path branched to Eval, waiting for
+the others to come up; for Rick's way lay across the moor and she
+would be left alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe it does hurt now,&quot; he said, still dissatisfied, &quot;and I know
+I could set it right. Do let me try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How serious you are!&quot; she cried with a sudden change of mood. &quot;See! I
+promise to give it back on Friday if it hurts. It shall be my birthday
+present. There!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All right. I'll keep it for yours; then we shall be quits,&quot; he said,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he had left them, Eustace took his place, and Cynthia Strong and
+Captain Weeks were certainly the happier for the change. Lady Maud,
+likewise, to judge by her light laughter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fast Day rose brilliantly. The clear, crisp sunshine poured in through
+the dining-room windows, when, coming down to breakfast, she found her
+cousin there, alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Another lovely day,&quot; she said gaily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The last for me,&quot; he replied. &quot;That was the yacht yesterday. It has
+anchored below the sands, and the captain has strict orders from
+Louisa to bring me off dead or alive to-night.&quot; He laughed, but there
+was a bitter look on his face as he tossed a crumpled letter towards
+her. &quot;Catch! that's my warrant of execution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Not a very nice letter, but a reasonable one in its way. The weather
+was to blame, of course; still, she had asked him to join her many
+times and he had not joined her. He had been a month and more at
+Roederay and now the equinoctial gales were over, she meant to be off
+southwards. If he could not make use of the yacht, he must send it
+round to Cowes and make his own arrangements. For her part, she
+intended to start for the Mediterranean in ten days. Not the sort of
+letter to be disregarded by a husband dependent on the writer for all
+save a very moderate settlement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I've told them to have the boat ready at the Gr�da point at five this
+afternoon to take me on board. Perhaps it is better so. This sort of
+thing couldn't have gone on much longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was silent, and the professor, bursting in, ended the t�te-�-t�te.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a land, or perhaps I should say sea, of surprises this is, to be
+sure!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;The <i>Clansman</i>, I am informed by the factor,
+whom I met on his way to preaching, will anticipate her time by three
+whole days, owing to this Fast and some local market. She takes
+Carbost on the out instead of the in trip, and is due to-night, some
+time between seven and two in the morning. So I am afraid, my dear
+lady, that my delightful visit must come to a somewhat abrupt
+conclusion. I propose, therefore, going over--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To Eval House,&quot; suggested Eustace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No-o. To the hotel at dusk, so as to be on the spot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lady Maud paled visibly. &quot;And Cynthia! of course she and Captain Weeks
+will go too. Ah! what a sudden breakup of our pleasant party!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had better come with us, dear lady, and so reduce our regrets to
+a minimum,&quot; cried the professor gallantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the compliment fell flat. That was the fate of most remarks during
+breakfast, so that conversation dwindled to excerpts from Bradshaw's
+guide. Captain Weeks, who was generally a stand-by of placid good
+nature, was peculiarly low. He had made up his mind, come what might,
+to try his fate with Cynthia Strong before leaving, and now, though
+still determined, he felt hustled. She, in her turn, knew she had
+shilly-shallied in a way unworthy of a Girton girl until her
+opportunities of bringing the professor to book had dwindled to three
+days; two of them to be spent at sea, where she could not be sure of
+herself or him. As for Eustace and Maud, their r�le in the comedy of
+Life had been touched with tragedy for some time past. They felt dimly
+that the crisis had come.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have never been to Eilean-a-fa-ash, after all,&quot; said Cynthia,
+pausing at the window on her way to pack, and looking regretfully to
+where the island lay out in the blue sea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought we shouldn't,&quot; murmured Lady Maud in a low voice; &quot;the
+Island of Rest is not for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It has been within reach all the time. It is so still,&quot; replied
+Eustace in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We might have gone this morning if it hadn't been Fast Day,&quot;
+continued Cynthia, aggrieved. &quot;Couldn't we bribe somebody? I want to
+go awfully, and so does the professor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My failure to do so will be the only regret which can possibly mingle
+with my memories of Roederay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can't think why you all want to see it,&quot; remarked the captain,
+frowning at the professor's complimentary bows. &quot;I went over one
+day--yes, I did, Miss Strong--to shoot seals. Didn't get any--worse
+luck! But it wasn't a bit pretty. Sand and bones and a stone coffin or
+two. The ghillie told me, too, that sometimes, after a north wind, it
+was awfully grim. The sand blows off, don't you know, and leaves
+skeletons and things. Not at all the place for ladies, don't you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm sorry to be obliged to differ,&quot; retorted Cynthia sharply. &quot;In my
+opinion, there are no places where a woman should not be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nihil continget quod non ornavit,&quot; paraphrased the professor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The captain's head held itself very high. &quot;Perhaps I am wrong, but I
+don't think so. However, as you wish to see it, Miss Strong, I shall
+be delighted to row you over in the small boat. Only we must start at
+slack tide; that is, about three in the afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too late, I'm afraid,&quot; replied the young lady disconsolately. &quot;We
+ought to be starting for the hotel before six; oughtn't we, Maud?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, we could manage it,&quot; he went on, seeing in this plan the chance
+of the t�te-�-t�te on which his mind was set. &quot;If the wagonette were
+to pick us up at the cross-roads, we should have heaps of time. It
+would only be starting two hours earlier,--before the others, I mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you say, professor?&quot; asked Cynthia sweetly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Arthur Weeks ground his teeth, and turned away with a murmur about the
+boat being heavy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the professor will row, of course. Every one rows at Oxford.
+Indeed, I, for one, think the Oxford style is the best in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then perhaps you will not require my aid. I only learnt off the coast
+of Cornwall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Cynthia looked at her usually docile adorer in amaze; she did not
+understand that the big man had for once thought it worth while to
+make up his mind. &quot;But we couldn't go without you,&quot; she pleaded quite
+meekly. &quot;You see, you have been there before. Ah, no! we couldn't go
+without you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I can be of any use--&quot; said the captain magnificently, and the
+sight of his aggrieved but courteous dignity gave Cynthia quite a
+pang.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So it was arranged that, about slack tide, he and the professor should
+row to Eilean-a-fa-ash from the boat-house on the north headland, and
+afterwards, taking advantage of the full tide and southerly current,
+slip down the coast across the sands to meet the wagonette. Eustace
+and Maud proposed to start about the same time for Eval House, so that
+he might say good-bye to Miss Willina before joining the yacht's boat
+at Gr�da point, whence the carriage, on its return journey, would take
+Lady Maud back to Roederay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A sombre silence had lain between these two all day, and even when
+they were left alone on the terrace watching the others disappear
+shorewards, they said nothing for a time. A great stillness seemed to
+be in the very air. Not a breath on the water, not a sound on the
+moor, not a cloud on the sky. The very house seemed asleep; most of
+the servants away for edification or amusement at the preaching, miles
+to the south, amongst the peat bogs and heather, singing psalms and
+eating peppermint drops, praising the Creator and flirting with the
+creature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The silence must have reminded Eustace of this fact, for at last he
+turned to his companion hastily. &quot;They won't be at Eval, so there is
+no use going. Come, Maud! It is the last time we shall be together, I
+suppose. Come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was not much to grant, she thought, when she might never see him
+again. So they went out together over the moors, down by the little
+pools where the water showed their shadows, blended one into the
+other, upon the cairns where they sate together, looking out over the
+sea. Together, always together, Eustace and she, as it had been at the
+beginning. And this was the end, the very end.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile the trio in the boat set forth gaily; the professor very
+straight in the back, and with no little style giving the stroke,
+whilst Arthur Weeks, gloomily polite, paddled in the bows, debarred
+from even a fair sight of his beloved. The full flood-tide lapped at
+the furthermost scallop of seaweed on the shingly shore, and touched
+the sea-pinks cresting the rocks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Couldn't you pull a leetle harder?&quot; suggested the captain drily, when
+the professor paused in a long sentence to take breath. &quot;I don't want
+to hustle anybody, but we have only just got time to manage it. We are
+making a good deal of leeway, and the channel north is a bit
+dangerous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Cynthia glanced nervously towards the Pole. &quot;Oh, yes! please, Mr.
+Endorwick, pull harder. We can talk when we get to the island.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Easier said than done. The perspiration poured down the professor's
+face, and bow kept her head straight as a die; yet still the boat
+failed to respond.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As they crept along slowly, the channel between the headlands and the
+island began to open up, showing the still, oily water which tells of
+swift current.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are too far north,&quot; said the captain, resting on his oar a moment.
+&quot;The tide can't have been quite slack when we started. However, it
+doesn't matter; for the current here will take us south in no time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The professor pausing too, they drifted idly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's the landing-place, Miss Strong,&quot; went on the speaker. &quot;Yonder,
+where the bents almost touch the water, and that square thing behind
+is a stone cof--&quot; he paused abruptly. &quot;Why, what the devil! we're
+drifting north--due north. By George, we are, though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In good sooth they were--drifting north like a feather.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;North! impossible--the current runs south at flood. Stay--by Heaven,
+I remember--Ronald said something about a change at the equinox.
+Quick, man alive. Pull, pull hard! Once she gets beyond those rocks,
+we will have the dickens and all to keep her out of the eddy. It runs
+like a race--higher up--amongst sunken--rocks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last words came in jerks as he set all his strength to the oar.
+The boat spun round with the point of the professor's oar as axis;
+spun round, drifting as it span.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Damn it all!&quot; shouted the man of war busy on the rowlocks. &quot;I beg
+your pardon, Miss Strong. Here, man, quick, give me the oar--go
+forward--lie down in the bows and keep her keel stiff. Now then,
+Cynthia, don't scream, there's a good girl--there's no danger as yet.
+Lie down too--then you won't see anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She did lie down ignominiously. Right down at his feet, feeling
+that she would be content to enter Paradise clinging to this man's
+coat-tails if only that entry was not premature. The whole world, to
+her, lay in the strength of those arms, and when, meeting her piteous
+eyes, his face relaxed to something like a smile, and he gasped, &quot;All
+right--getting along--nicely,&quot; she felt once, and for all, that she
+loved his little finger better than the whole of that abject figure in
+the bows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So she crouched, lost in a sort of terrified reliance on him, till
+with a queer little sound, half sob, half laugh, he slackened, and
+without a pause proceeded to retransfer a pair of rowlocks to the
+bows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now then--professor--if you please--sorry to have--been so
+abrupt--but--one manages better sculling--when there's no rudder.&quot; The
+breaks were caused by his being out of breath. Otherwise he was full
+of dignity, and Cynthia Strong broke down suddenly into subdued tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had better lie still,&quot; he said. &quot;See--here's my coat.&quot; He fumbled
+it into a pillow with his left hand, as he went on rowing with his
+right. &quot;Raise your head, please, so;&quot; and, as he bent over her, he
+whispered, &quot;Don't cry, dear, it's all over now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What Cynthia Strong did to the hand so near her lips is a dead secret
+between those two. The captain's fine flush was doubtless due to his
+previous exertions, but why a pillow should have caused a rush of
+blood to Cynthia's terror-blanched face, remains a mystery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't work so hard, professor!&quot; cried the former gaily. &quot;You
+are pulling me round, and we have to get our head towards home.
+Eilean-a-fa-ash is out of the question; besides, Miss Strong will be
+all the better for a cup of tea. This sort of thing isn't fit for
+women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And nobody denied it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">VII</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A man and a woman looking seawards from Gr�da point. To the north, the
+long curve of sands hidden by the flood-tide. A curve ending in the
+low line of Eilean-a-fa-ash, which, viewed from here, seemed as if it
+were joined to the mainland. Beyond, the northern headland, whence
+Roederay Lodge stood out against the sky. To the south, a coast broken
+into little points and bays, with the slender masts of a yacht
+standing above a near promontory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To the west, a spit of rocks running out into the Atlantic, which once
+more lay like a golden garment stretching far as the eye could reach
+on either hand. At their feet, a little boat swaying gently against a
+bare ledge of rock; for the tide was at the full.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do come,&quot; said the man; &quot;you haven't really seen the yacht, and we
+can't possibly miss the returning wagonette. I'll send a man to watch,
+if you like; then there can be no mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not look at her, but his voice was instinct with passionate
+entreaty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the men may not be here till late.&quot; Lady Maud did not look at him
+either, yet the same repressed emotion rang in her tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can row you. We have only to paddle round those rocks, and the
+current will take us right on to the yacht.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lazy beggars! let them swim. Besides, they should have been here long
+ago; it is past five.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Half-past. They have been here and put the stores in the boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is we who are late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He moved a step closer, impatiently. &quot;What have the men to do with it,
+Maud? Don't--don't be childish! What are you afraid of--not of me,
+surely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a pause.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am afraid of nothing,&quot; she said lightly. &quot;Come, it will be pleasant
+out on that sunny sea at any rate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He steadied the boat for her, and she stepped in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where to?&quot; he asked, half in jest, when a stroke or two had taken
+them from the shadow of the rock into the glitter of the sinking sun,
+where they lay bathed in light, the water dripping from the lifted
+oars like drops of molten gold. &quot;Why shouldn't we leave everything
+behind and set sail for nowhere--anywhere?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With his arms resting on the oars, he leant forwards, fixing his dark
+eyes on her face. They were full of pity and a great tenderness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You look so nice there, Maud. Take off your hat, dear, and let the
+sun shine on your hair as it used to do when you were a girl. If I had
+my will, Maud, you should always be in the sunlight; you know that,
+don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The oars fell into the water softly as he rowed on, whilst she sate
+silent, trailing one hand in the water and watching the great big
+medus� come pulsating past.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How pleasant it must be to drift--like that!&quot; she said half to
+herself, and once again the drip, drip, drip, of those golden tears
+filled up the silence as the boat swayed idly on the breathing of the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why shouldn't we drift? There is plenty of time, and God knows ties
+enough, as a rule. Grapnels fore and aft and a mud bank under all to
+stick upon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't talk of that now, Eustace,&quot; she broke in hurriedly. &quot;Let
+us forget it for this last half hour. Isn't it enough to be
+here--together?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enough for now--&quot; he replied unsteadily; &quot;but for afterwards?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There may be no afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shook his head. &quot;A man never thinks of that. He can't live on
+moonshine; or sunshine either. He wants something real; and so do you.
+Maud! what will you do when you go back to him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She put out her hand in entreaty with a little cry. &quot;Oh, Eustace! can
+you not let me be happy for one short half hour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Happy, when we are going to part? Happy, when I know what your future
+will be? when I know it will be torture to you? Why did you send him
+away if it was not because the strain was too great for you to bear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I--I did not send him away,&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pshaw! Hooper told me about it--the fool was afraid. Then the wire
+came, of course, and there was no need for the other. But you meant
+it, Maud. Ah, my darling! don't think I am blaming you--Blame! How
+could I blame you save for too much patience?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud, let us cut the knot! We have made a mistake, both of us; for
+you are miserable, and I--I will not bear it. Come--the yacht is
+there. Let us go into the sunshine. Come, my darling--see how fate
+points the way. We are drifting, drifting--a little more and the
+current will take us. Why should you go back to the empty house? the
+empty life? Maud! Maud!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What does a man say to a woman when he has forgotten everything in the
+world save his mad desire to keep her for his own? All that could be
+said, in all its tenderness, its passion, and its selfishness, was
+hers as the boat drifted and drifted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am cold!&quot; she said suddenly, giving a little shudder, yet drawing
+closer to him. &quot;We shall be too late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too late to return,&quot; he answered joyously. &quot;Oh, Maud, trust me this
+once--See, the yacht is close.&quot; He turned and gave a quick exclamation
+of surprise. Where were they? Not, as he expected, within a stone's
+throw of the coast, drifting surely southwards. Here was nothing save
+sea, and rising slowly from it on all sides a thin mist, golden in the
+sunlight through which, in the far distance, a shadow or two loomed
+faint, unrecognized.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Above them the sky, clear as ever; below them the sea, bright,
+pellucid; but between them a gathering curtain which even as he looked
+faded from gold to white, from white to grey, as the unseen sun sank
+beneath the unseen horizon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a sea-haugh,&quot; he said lightly; &quot;the wind must have changed to
+the north, and the cold condenses the vapour. I have seen them often
+after hot weather. But it is all right. We must be close to the yacht,
+for we were well in the current when I stopped rowing; and it runs
+inshore due south. If I whistle, they must hear and answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But none came, and the sound seemed to return resonant from the mist,
+showing that it had not travelled far. So, whistling, shouting, and
+rowing, they spent some time in vain, till fear began to invade her
+courage. What if they had drifted past? What if they were drifting out
+to sea, further and further from safety? He tried to scoff at her
+alarm, though his own anxiety grew fast as the mist settled thicker
+and thicker till he could not see a yard beyond the bows. Suddenly,
+with a grating shock, the boat stopped abruptly, almost throwing them
+into each other's arms. His heart seemed to stop also, as he
+remembered having heard of sunken rocks in mid channel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are aground--stay still, I will see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stepped cautiously over the side, one foot into six inches of water
+and a shelving bottom, the other into three. Then on to firm dry warm
+sand. His laugh of relief was genuine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The adventure is over, Maud. Come! let me help you out. This must be
+the mainland; but where, I can't say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A difficult question, indeed, to decide with that grey mist curtain
+closing in and shutting out all, save a patch or two of bent at their
+feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay here a bit,&quot; he continued, &quot;and I will explore. Take the
+whistle. I won't go beyond its reach or be away long; the road must be
+close by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was not, however, and he returned after a time with a clouded face.
+&quot;I don't understand it. The sea seems to surround us except in one
+direction, and that is all sand and bent. I don't remember any such
+point below Gr�da.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps we are above it,&quot; suggested his companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite impossible. The current runs south; a sort of back eddy from
+the big stream. That is what brings all the drift to Gr�da Sands. The
+question, however, is what we are to do. Take to the boat again and
+punt along the shore till we find a landmark, I should say. Best not
+to desert our ships.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But this again brought a disappointment, and half an hour's rowing,
+punting, and towing resulted in nothing. By this time it was almost
+dark, the mist gathered denser than ever, and with the approach of
+night the north wind rose steadily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The sooner we settle ourselves the better, if we have to camp out,
+and it looks like it,&quot; said he at last. &quot;Still, if we light a fire,
+some one may see it. Anyhow, there are stores and a sail in the boat,
+so we shall manage. Cheer up, Maud; imagine we are children again. How
+often haven't we pretended to be cast away on a desert island
+together, and how happy we were!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">True enough; yet as she helped him to gather driftwood for the fire,
+her thoughts were on the difference between those days and these. And
+there was more to them in this mischance than there would have been to
+others. What had she meant to do when she stepped into the boat? She
+could not tell; only this she knew, that fate seemed to have decided
+for her. If the fire brought some one--well and good. If not, why then
+Eustace and she had gone adrift. That question was settled forever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She sate feeding the fire, whilst he foraged for eatables in the boat,
+and each stick seemed to her another doubt dispelled. How they flamed
+and crackled and sparkled, as driftwood does out of sheer joy in
+burning. Yet no one came--no one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Later on, with the tenderness which was a fierce delight to her, he
+found her what shelter he could on that bare waste of bent and
+shingle; though it was only a nook, backed on the windy side by a
+rough slab of rock half embedded in the sand. Still it was dry and
+warm, and with the boat's sail wrapped round her, and her feet towards
+a freshly built fire, she could lean back comfortably and defy some of
+the growing cold and rising wind. She sate watching him silently as he
+sate by the fire, turning every now and again to assure himself of her
+comfort or tuck the sail, loosened by the wind, round her more
+closely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly, during one of these ministrations, her eye caught the
+sparkle of dewdrops on his coat, and she stretched out her delicate
+hand to touch his sleeve. It was quite wet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is plenty of room for you here, Eustace,&quot; she said quietly,
+&quot;and the sail will cover us if we sit close together. I--I must not
+begin by being selfish.&quot; Then her calm gave way. &quot;Oh, Eustace!
+Eustace! we must love each other very dearly or I shall die of shame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Something in the almost despairing surrender to fate roused the best
+part in his nature. He drew her head on to his shoulder and kissed her
+gently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, dear. Go to sleep if you can. I'll watch the fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She gave a little shivering sob and clung to him. All was settled now;
+she had taken her life into her own hands; the struggle was over, and
+he was a haven of rest--a haven of rest. Her thoughts went no further
+than that, for she was utterly wearied out; but as he sate beside her,
+his mind went far afield into the afterwards which he had claimed as
+his right; and more than once as she stirred in the uneasy sleep into
+which she had fallen, he bent over her again and kissed her. She was
+his; the past was at an end; scruples must come later if they came at
+all. He had foreseen this ending from the beginning; perhaps he
+had tried to escape from it; perhaps he had not. This much was
+certain,--the stars had fought for him, and she was his. The wind
+swept steadily round them, but, safe sheltered as she was, he
+feared no harm, and when the dawn came their troubles would all be
+over--forever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So sheltering her, as morning approached he, too, fell into a doze,
+and the fire, deprived of fuel, sank by degrees to a heap of
+smouldering ashes. Then the chill which comes before the day sought
+them out even in each other's arms, and brought to both a vague,
+surprised consciousness of their surroundings. Where were they? What
+had happened? With eyes still full of sleep and dreams, she saw the
+grey mist hanging round them--the ashes of the fire which had burnt so
+bravely last night. Last night! Great God, how came she there?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Eustace!&quot; she cried, starting up wildly, one hand finding aid from
+the slab of rock behind her. Her pretty hair was damp with dew, her
+face flushed where it had rested on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For answer he caught her to him and covered her face with passionate
+kisses. He, too, was fresh from sleep and dreams,--dreams of the
+hereafter. And now the day had come, and yonder, where the mist showed
+lightest, the sun was rising.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! no!&quot; she panted, struggling to escape.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud!&quot;--his tone was full of surprised reproach as he fell back a
+step,--&quot;what is it? What have I done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What have <i>I</i> done?&quot; she echoed swiftly. &quot;I can't remember! Oh, God!
+what's that?&quot; Her voice rose to a shriek; she clung to him
+convulsively with one hand while her eyes fixed themselves on the
+stone slab which had sheltered her--and him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The north wind had done work during the night, and the embedded slab
+was clear now; more than clear. It formed part of a stone coffin
+whence the wind had driven the sand, leaving the contents exposed to
+view. Only a few bones, but, backed by the drifted sand, they still
+kept the semblance of a skeleton sitting staring out into the mist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eustace Gordon recoiled--the best of men would have done so much in
+such a situation; then memory aided him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is Eilean-a-fa-ash, Maud--Eilean-a-varai--you remember. We must
+have drifted north somehow. Don't look so scared, my darling. It is
+only Eilean-a-fa-ash--the Island of Rest--that is all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She did not heed him; her eyes, full of an almost insane terror,
+were fastened on the fleshless hand which lay so near--oh! God in
+heaven!--so near her own as it clutched the side of the coffin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The ring,&quot; she whispered. &quot;Look! look--the ring, my ring, my ring.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yes! on the dead as on the living hand he saw the ring with its
+legend, &quot;Beautiful, constant, chaste.&quot; A chill came over even his
+passion; yet he turned to her with sudden petulance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well! what then?--you know whence it must have come, what it must
+have been from the beginning, I suppose. Come! let us leave these
+horrors, let us leave the past and be sensible. Come, Maud.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She gave him one look,--a look he never forgot,--and with a cry of
+&quot;Rick's ring! Rick's ring!&quot; broke from him and disappeared into the
+mist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! Maud! don't be silly! Maud! where are you going? For God's
+sake, Maud! come back. The mist--the sea--are you mad? Maud! Maud!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then he, too, was blotted out, and the growing light of day found
+nothing human there save the bones of a woman who had been loved.
+Nothing but that and the ashes of a fire which had gone out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! Maud!&quot; The cry hit on the mist and came echoing back to him,
+as, following her faint footsteps, he pursued her. Once looming
+through the fog he thought he saw her pausing as for breath, but his
+passionate entreaty for her to wait for him, his eager reminder that
+he was Eustace--Eustace, her lover--brought no response. Did he
+imagine a faint cry as if she started off in renewed alarm, or was it
+only some sea-bird hidden in the mist, uttering its plaintive note?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He brought himself up suddenly with a gasp of horrid fears as his feet
+gave way beneath him--deeper? deeper? No! that was right: firm ground
+once more, but where was he? Where were those faint footmarks leading
+him?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! Come back! It is not safe!&quot; Still he went on. Not safe, indeed!
+He floundered desperately for a moment, and then stood with laboured
+breath and a dew of deadly fear on his face, looking round him. The
+sun rising steadily had, by this time, turned the mist into a golden
+haze, through which he could see that a few seaweed-hung boulders had
+been gathered to a heap whence sprang a cross-shaped post. It must be
+a ford--the sea ford to Eilean-a-fa-ash. That way then lay safety, for
+a few hours; but which way had she gone? He stooped to see, with fear
+for her and for himself fighting with his love. Then he stood up, pale
+as death. &quot;Maud! Come back. Maud! I will not hurt you.&quot; Surely, surely
+there was an answering cry. The relief seemed to blind him, deafen
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here! Here! where are you? It is I!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next instant Rick Halmar was beside him, fiercely imperative.
+&quot;Where is she? Where is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Eustace Gordon looked at the eager boyish face stupidly, and faltered,
+&quot;She was afraid--she ran away. I don't know why. Call her. She might
+come to you. Call her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Those bright blue eyes seemed to pierce him through and through,
+before they sought the ground. There was not much to be seen; only the
+print of a woman's foot in the sand, a foot going south; due south.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Coward!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The word rang out clear from the golden mist like a voice from heaven,
+and Eustace Gordon was left standing alone beside the cross pointing
+towards safety. Rick Halmar had gone south; due south.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">VIII</a></h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Then a new cry beat itself upon the curtain of mist: &quot;Lady Maud! Lady
+Maud! it is I--Rick! Rick Halmar.&quot; And the boy's voice reached further
+than the man's, as moment by moment the sea-haugh lightened, softened,
+rose, until it seemed no more than a golden halo round the climbing
+sun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is I--Rick! Rick Halmar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His hands clenched tighter and tighter as he ran. To Eustace the
+danger had been uncertain, unreal, but Rick knew every inch of the
+ground, and knew that each step left hope further behind. Already his
+accustomed ear had caught the curious whispering hush with which the
+land gives way before the sea. And he knew what that meant on Gr�da
+Sands. Firm foothold for a second and then a shivering and murmuring
+sliding gulf. Oh, horrible, most horrible to think of her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lady Maud! it is I--Rick, only Rick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The thought came to him suddenly that it was his birthday. She had
+promised to give him something. Ah! fate could not be so cruel on his
+birthday of all days in the year! Foolish irrational thought which
+somehow brought him comfort as his keen eyes sought a sign and found
+nothing but those shining footsteps, whence the water filtered even as
+he sped past them. Thank Heaven for so much! since it showed that the
+tide was still far off; that as yet there was time. Lighter and
+lighter too! Soon he might be able to see her, ghostlike, through the
+mist, or at least judge the distance of that creeping line of foam
+which, still unseen, and still, he hoped fiercely, far, far off, yet
+seemed to occupy his every thought, to fill his memory. Tortuous like
+a snake, with the snake's low hiss as it curled along the quivering
+sand. Suddenly his heart stood still, for there out of the golden mist
+grew the tall black spar of the old wreck with its message of warning:
+&quot;Pretty safe so far, most times; beyond that--&quot; The recollection of
+his own careless words prompted another cry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My lady--my dearest lady. It is I, Rick--only Rick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What was that on the sand--blotting the yellow sand just below the
+spar? A stone? seaweed? No--that was a woman's dress; she was there,
+face downwards on the sand, fallen insensible perhaps--but saved.
+Thank God! saved. He stumbled in his mad haste to reach her. Was it a
+stumble, or had his foot broken through the firmer crust? Again, this
+time both feet. Could he have come so far, so close, only to fail?
+Impossible! Then beneath him he felt a tremor, the first slight tremor
+heralding the dissolution of dry land. With the sudden resolve which,
+in time of danger, separates one man from his fellow, decisively,
+absolutely, to the utter annihilation of all cant about equality, he
+put all his strength into one bold leap forward. The next instant he
+was clinging to the spar like a monkey, or a sailor. The tremor
+passed; the sand settled once more with a low gurgling murmur,
+proclaiming the back draw of the wave still hidden by the haze.
+Cautiously he tried one foot beyond the single plank between him and
+destruction. Hopeless, even if he stood still, and to reach her he
+must take a step or two. Again the tremor came,--the shifting, sliding
+sparkle of the sand-grains as they parted,--and the figure lying with
+its face hidden, resting on the right arm, sank a little. Only a very
+little; yet still it sank. He had come prepared for danger, with a
+rope wound about his waist; and almost with his first foothold on the
+wreck, his hands had been busy with the coil even while his thoughts
+and eyes were elsewhere. A bight here, a bend there, and it was fast
+as sailor's lore could make it, to the spars and to his body. No! not
+there; for it had to be doubled to bear the strain, and he could not
+afford to lose an inch. So, tight over one shoulder with a treble
+twist round his outstretched arm. That would not give way unless it
+tore the arm from its socket; and then the rope, being high up on the
+spar, would give him greater purchase when the time came for strength.
+How long these thoughts, these actions, seemed to take; yet he could
+not spare one of them even though, with a soft, swishing rush, the
+hidden enemy made another sally. This time lingering half a moment
+round that figure on the sand as if to gain a firmer hold upon it.
+Perhaps! but not so firm as his would be. Now he was ready! With a
+swing backwards and forwards to gain additional impetus, the rope
+coiled loosely so as not to drag, he leapt clear of the wreck towards
+her. An instant's doubt, and he had her by the hand, the left hand,
+which lay stretched on the sand as she had fallen. How cold it was!
+Could she be dead? But the horror of the thought was forgotten in
+fight; for now, with the same chuckling sound as if the devils below
+were laughing at him, came the back draw. Not an inch, not a quarter
+to be yielded, come what might. The rope, despite his bitter clench
+upon its strands, cut deep into his arm; it seemed as if a red-hot
+iron pierced his shoulder, as the sinews strained to their uttermost.
+Ah! that was a relief, but her weight was heavier surely, and that
+meant less stable support. Hanging as he was, by one arm,--the other
+outstretched to keep his hold on her,--he could see nothing save the
+unsteady sand closing round him. He seemed to feel nothing save the
+little cold hand in his. It was now or never. Grasping the rope as
+high as he could reach, he put out his whole strength, hoping to move
+her but an inch nearer to him. Hopeless; and the back draw, coming on
+him unawares, found him, as it were, on the rack, and seized its
+opportunity. He set his teeth and endured. How, he never knew, but
+when the agony passed, a dew, like that of death, was on his face, and
+he hung nerveless, helpless, save for the desperate resolve to keep
+his hold--to keep her hand in his. The wave again. Little bubbles this
+time, as if some one was drowning close by. Ah! if he could only see
+her, even though it was to see her gripped in that pulsating horror!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maud! it is I--only Rick.&quot; The cry came from him as he hung on
+the rack once more. Perhaps, if he could keep his hold, the coming
+tide would slacken that grip--it might--it must. How far had she
+sunk--already? Had the golden head disappeared? Was there nothing
+left save the little cold hand where he could feel the ring--his
+ring--slipping under his clasp? Ah! there was the wave again--surging
+in his ears, whispering, whispering, whispering, surely of some
+far-off country, of a great rest, and peace, and forgetfulness.</p>
+
+<br>
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick Halmar hung limp upon the rope. Nature had stepped in; her
+patience was exhausted, she would have no more heroism, no more delay.
+Those two hands had held each other long enough. The time had come for
+them to part quietly, peacefully. Not in a moment, but gradually, as
+if even in unconsciousness the spirit strove against the flesh, those
+slender fingers slipped through the strong ones. Slipped and slipped,
+till, with a little jerk, Rick's hand closed upon itself, and fell
+back inert, while the other, still stretched in mute appeal, sank
+slowly into the sand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sun, having escaped from its halo, saw the deed done, and smiled
+down upon the sight cheerfully. Only a boy with a birthday present in
+his hand. Only one more woman loved and lost. What was that to weep
+over? A wheeling gull, sweeping by on broad white wings, suggested
+sympathy, but, in reality, it came to see if the deed portended food
+for its young ones. There were no other spectators. Had there been,
+they would have been so occupied by vain attempts to aid, that the
+essence of it all would have escaped them. Such things are better told
+than witnessed.</p>
+
+<br>
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">So thought Miss Willina when, three weeks afterwards, Rick, with his
+left arm still in a sling, tried to make her understand it was not his
+fault. He wore the silver ring on his right hand; they had found it
+there tight clasped when, set on the track by Eustace Gordon, they
+came in a boat to the rescue. Just too late to do more than release
+Rick from a torture none the less painful afterwards because it was
+unfelt at the time. Perhaps, with her older eyes, Miss Willina saw
+further into the blame than he did; but she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So Rick kept the ring, with its legend &quot;Beautiful, constant, chaste,&quot;
+as his birthday present. He did not even give it to his wife. It
+belonged, he said, to the most perfect woman he had ever seen, and
+when people suggested the propriety of this being a euphonism for the
+one he had chosen as his life-companion, he shook his head with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nevertheless, Miss Willina was not silent of blame. She poured vials
+of it on her own head for having neglected a clear duty. If she had
+only insisted on the other devil being burnt as well, this terrible
+thing might not have come to pass. Anyhow, she would go over to the
+deserted Lodge without delay, and destroy the wicked idol, lest it
+should do more harm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me come too,&quot; said Rick in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This time Miss Willina did not meet his request with the query, &quot;Was
+she so pretty as all that, dear?&quot; Indeed, the memory of those words
+choked her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So Rick went for the first time into the little sanctum where Lady
+Maud had stood adrift at the window. The image was still on the
+mantelpiece, and he started at the sight of it. &quot;Aunt Will!&quot; he cried
+in quick, half-alarmed tones, &quot;I never made that--it is not my work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was not. The professor had been right for once, when he called it a
+genuine savage conception of fate, brought thither by the Gulf Stream.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rick took it up in his hands and looked at it curiously. &quot;I wonder,&quot;
+he said, half to himself, &quot;if things would have been different.&quot; Then,
+with a sort of appeal, he turned to Miss Willina. &quot;Aunt Will--you
+don't really believe--all that rubbish--do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her answer was decisive. She took the image from him, and marched off
+with it to Kirsty's peat fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So that was an end of the tragic comedy of Roederay. When Rick set off
+to sail the seas, all the actors in it had disappeared, save Miss
+Willina in the windblown Noah's Ark at Eval.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Will Lockhart came back the next summer, and painted a picture of
+Eilean-a-fa-ash, with a golden sea-haugh hanging over drifted sand,
+and the skeleton of a hand showing from a stone coffin. It was
+gruesome and morbid; so it was much admired by the Gulf Stream of
+society in the Royal Academy. Miss Willina, however, still refused to
+find entertainment in a magic lantern. The past was sacred, she said,
+and no good ever came in disbelieving in it. Besides, what would
+become of her animals?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He came again the next summer, bringing with him a tale about the
+&quot;flusteration midst the bastes of all creation,&quot; which followed on the
+introduction of the &quot;Spirit of fell Denial into the Ark,&quot; whereat they
+both laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And that year he sent a picture to the Royal Academy, which a few
+critics admired. But then, it was only the portrait of a middle-aged
+woman with a sick gosling on her lap, and half a dozen zoological
+specimens grouped around her. Yet you could almost feel the northwest
+wind which was ruffling the coils of hair, and smell the fresh, salt,
+wholesome breeze which had swept the sand from those dead fingers at
+Eilean-a-fa-ash. It was the other side of the picture; but it did not
+suit the public taste so well. <i>Chacun � son gout</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
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+++ b/39847.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the Tideway
+
+Author: Flora Annie Steel
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2012 [EBook #39847]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE TIDEWAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (New York Public Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=sYwnAAAAMAAJ
+      (New York Public Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          FLORA ANNIE STEEL
+
+        Author of "On the Face of the Waters," "Miss Stuart's
+                  Legacy," "Red Rowans," etc., etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               New York
+                        THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                                 1897
+                        _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           Copyright, 1897,
+                      By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                            Norwood Press
+             J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
+                         Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            IN THE TIDEWAY
+
+
+
+
+                               PROLOGUE
+
+
+A Statue of charity with helpless childhood gathered to the ample
+bosom, and helpless age sheltered by the ample veil behind it, a
+crimson curtain concealing an angle in the stairway. In front a crowd
+streaming slackly, yet steadily, up the steps; a crowd which broke
+into little eddies of greeting, little backwaters of gossip, whilst
+the waves from the rear, taking advantage of the pause, rippled higher
+and higher. A crowd complaining indifferently of the crush, the heat,
+the impossibility of being in two places at once--not with reference
+to the hay-sweet meadows and copses where the nightingales were
+singing to the moon that summer's night, but in regard to some other
+hot staircase, where society was due some time ere the sun rose.
+
+To the man who, in a comfortable niche behind the statue, sate removed
+from the pressure of the current, the scene was framed by Charity's
+mantle. Perhaps it needed the setting; a crowd generally does whether
+it be in the old Kent Road or Grosvenor Square.
+
+"The Big Bear! I beg your pardon, Mr. Lockhart. Why aren't you in
+Rome, and is there room for me on that peaceful seat?"
+
+"There is always room for Golden Locks beside the Big Bear--and now,
+Lady Maud, why should I be in Rome at this season of the year?"
+
+"Because, being an artist, you should not mind malaria. Besides, what
+is malaria to this insufferable heat and crush? Doesn't it strike you
+that our hostess thinks getting into society, and getting society into
+her rooms, are synonymous terms? Did you ever see such a--"
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud, Charity!" interrupted her companion, pointing to
+the protecting arm stretched between them and the crowd. "Let it cover
+the multitude--"
+
+"Of sins? Thank you. I suppose I am wicked. But you--why are you here
+in the swim? When you profess to despise us--to renounce the world,
+the flesh, and the devil--"
+
+"Because I came to see one who should have nothing to do with that
+Trinity of Evil either. I came to see you, Lady Maud. I couldn't pass
+through Babylon without giving you my congratulations. So you are
+going to be married--"
+
+He paused, looking her in the face curiously.
+
+"Well! Why don't you say 'at last'? It is what every lady thinks, I'm
+sure. People have been coming perilously near calling me 'poor Lady
+Maud' these last two seasons, and now--yes! I am to marry Mr.
+Wilson--you know him, I think."
+
+"Yes, I do know that fortunate man, and, pardon me, Lady Maud, but you
+and I have been confidential, haven't we? ever since in a _tourbillon_
+of white frills and blue sashes you chose to prefer my walnuts to
+other folks' sweeties at dessert. Now about Eustace. What is to become
+of him?"
+
+The pretty face winced just a little.
+
+"Haven't you heard? Eustace is to be married also; indeed, we think of
+choosing the same day."
+
+"Out of bravado?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind. Eustace and I have put away--childish things. We
+have decided to be sensible, and he is marrying Louisa Capper, the
+American heiress. I like Louisa."
+
+"I trust that feeling is shared by Eustace."
+
+"How hopelessly old-fashioned you are, Big Bear! I don't believe you
+will ever learn to shave yourself in tufts, and become a civilized
+poodle. Of course he likes her. She is really a very nice girl, and
+then she only has a father. Don't you think the American '_par-par_'
+is less objectionable as a rule than the '_mar-mar_'? To be
+serious,--which I should not trouble to be with ninety-nine people out
+of a hundred,--Eustace and I have seen the error of our ways, and we
+intend--in fact, I personally expect to be very happy. As I said,
+Louisa is very--"
+
+"Where do you spend the honeymoon?" he interrupted, not being in the
+least interested in Louisa's part in the business.
+
+"Again hopelessly old-fashioned! There is but one place, nowadays, in
+which to spend a honeymoon,--Paris. It is so full of distractions.
+Then Mr. Wilson has taken a grouse moor near the North Pole; Eustace
+is to come there in his new yacht, and we are to have a real good
+time; as Louisa--"
+
+"Near the North Pole? Didn't know grouse grew there."
+
+"Well, it is not very far from it. I forget the name,--but see! there
+is Eustace behind old Lady Brecknock's feathers. He will remember."
+
+A very handsome dark man in the stream saw her signal and drifted
+sideways to shelter.
+
+"Charity cometh," he began.
+
+"Please not. Mr. Lockhart has patented it already; besides, I want you
+to tell me the name of that place in the Hebrides. Roederay! Yes, of
+course! I remember now that it put me in mind of dry champagne. By the
+way, you used to paint that coast once, Mr. Lockhart; do you by chance
+know Roederay?"
+
+What is called a flicker of expression crossed her hearer's face. It
+is a poor description for the absolute blank which a chance word
+brings to some imaginative people by summoning them from the present
+into the past.
+
+"I know it well," he replied. "And if you will excuse me, Lady Maud, I
+don't think it has much in common with dry champagne."
+
+Her clear, rather scornful eyes were on him critically.
+
+"Association belongs to Hope as well as Memory, Mr. Lockhart. You may
+have had a _mauvais quart d'heure_ at Roederay. We intend to have a
+good time; don't we, Eustace?"
+
+"Rather!"
+
+"I doubt it," retorted the elder man; "civilized people, like you,
+Eustace, for instance, shouldn't go to those places. To begin with,
+there is always a difficulty about dinner."
+
+Lady Maud laughed. "Not in these days of ice and telegraphs. Besides,
+some of us like high teas--don't we, Eustace?"
+
+His face did not change, though the appeal took him back many years in
+his turn; but then, the speaker was in that past as she was in the
+present. To say sooth, she occupied them both fully.
+
+"Yes, we can endure them. Do you remember those holidays at Lynmouth,
+Maud, and the feeds we had on the cliffs? I wonder if any boy ate more
+strawberries and cream at a sitting than I could do in those days?"
+
+"Have you changed much since then?" she asked, smiling up at him
+mischievously. "I don't see it, do you, Mr. Lockhart?"
+
+"Not a bit," replied the elder, laying his hand affectionately on the
+other's shoulder. "Eustace is just what he was as a boy--not to be
+stinted in his enjoyment of good things. To return, however, to
+Roederay. You won't like its simplicity, its habit of taking one right
+down to first principles."
+
+"It couldn't! we are too complex--aren't we, Eustace?"
+
+"And then it is grim. There is an island full of dead people, who
+appear--"
+
+"Ah! I know all about the stone coffins and the bones; Professor
+Endorwick told me, and he is coming north on purpose to explore all
+the antiquities. There he is in the crush with Cynthia Strong. I
+wonder when that will come off? Call them here, Eustace, and wisdom
+shall confound this Evil Prophet. Why, the professor, Mr. Lockhart,
+thinks _Eilean-a-varai_ alone is sufficient inducement for a visit to
+Roederay."
+
+"_Eilean-a-varai_--Isle of the Dead, you call it? We used to prefer
+another name: _Eilean-a-fa-ash_--Island of Rest. It lies right out in
+the sunset, like Avilion."
+
+Lady Maud gave a little shiver.
+
+"Oh no! that is ever so much more grim than the other. I hate things
+which--which appeal to the imagination."
+
+"I am quite aware of it," he replied quietly; "hence my prophecy that
+Roederay will not suit you."
+
+She sate playing with her fan idly. "Island of Rest indeed! There
+never was such a place--there never will be. Ah, professor, come like
+a good soul and do battle for civilization and culture. Are we not far
+better than the primitives of the North Pole? Are we not stronger,
+wiser, more original--"
+
+The learned professor, being a little deaf, did not quite catch her
+words. He was, in addition, much given to the jocular style when
+addressing the weaker sex, which he held to have been created for the
+sole purpose of exercising the social qualities of man. So, an
+appropriate remark having occurred to him, he came forward primed with
+it.
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud, is, as a rule said to cover a multitude of sins;
+in this case it conceals the virtues."
+
+And he was greatly pleased with himself when everybody laughed.
+
+"On the whole, I retract 'original,'" continued Lady Maud gravely; "so
+you needn't defend that proposition, professor. How can we be
+original? There is nothing new under the sun; even one's jokes have
+been appropriated by past generations. Everything has been used up."
+
+"Not everything," said Will Lockhart. "To return to Roederay, for
+instance. You will be next-door neighbours to the Gulf Stream. It is
+not used up; far from it. _That_, Lady Maud, will be another of the
+horrid things which appeal to the imagination. Night and day--day and
+night--"
+
+She shrugged her pretty bare shoulders.
+
+"There is the Gulf Stream I like," she replied, pointing to the crowd
+still surging onwards. "Why should you abuse it? We go on day and
+night, night and day. Upwards and onwards--to heaven, for all you
+know. I defy you and your old-world ideas and romances. We are going
+down to Roederay to paddle about where we choose, catalogue your dead
+people and their beliefs as we choose, and we are going to eat our
+dinner and kill everything we see. There is one of the slayers in the
+stream, Arthur Weeks, the best shot in England, so people say. Ah!
+Captain Weeks, Mr. Wilson tells me you are coming to Roederay. I am
+glad."
+
+"Charity, Lady Maud," began the gallant warrior.
+
+"That is not your bird, Captain Weeks! Mr. Lockhart, my cousin
+Eustace, and the professor have all blazed away at that poor joke
+already. Of course, your gun would bring it down, but please be
+merciful. Let it go for another day."
+
+"That reminds me, Gordon," said the captain confidentially to Lady
+Maud's cousin, when the laugh had ceased, "I was speaking to old
+Snapshot about Roederay, and he assures me that the birds lie like
+stones in that part. Something, he said, to do with the Gulf
+Stream--but I don't know much of these scientific things, Lady Maud.
+Only I assure you he declares you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like
+chickens on the last day of the season."
+
+There was a solemn pause. The advantages of Roederay seemed exhausted
+on all sides.
+
+"If some one will give me his arm," said Lady Maud, rising, "I will go
+upstairs--to Paradise, perhaps, Mr. Lockhart. I really must say how do
+you do to our hostess before going on to the next."
+
+
+
+
+                                  I
+
+
+"Any luck, Rick?" called a lady sitting on the doorstep of Eval House
+to a young man coming up the ferry-path. His rod was balanced level in
+his hand, his head bent forward against half a gale of wind, which,
+after sweeping the grass slopes into silvery waves, raced with white
+horses over the greener sea beyond. Yet on the doorstep, with the
+stone house betwixt you and the nor'west, the day was warm and still
+as any autumn day can be when a bright sun shines clear out of a
+brilliant blue sky.
+
+She was a very small lady, looking all the smaller because the energy
+expressed in every line of face and figure suggested its adequacy for
+the direction of a far larger mass of matter. Looking still smaller at
+that particular moment by reason of her being overwhelmed by a fleecy
+lamb she was endeavouring to feed with a teapot. For the rest, a lady
+long past youth, yet with sufficient traces of it left to show that it
+had been pre-eminently attractive.
+
+"Luck, Aunt Will? Why, yes, the best of luck. I've seen the most
+beautiful woman in the world."
+
+Miss Willina smiled.
+
+"Who will that be now? And is it twenty or twenty-one you are next
+month? Twenty-one, is it--yes: time passes. Then as you are so near
+man's estate it won't be Maclead's niece from Glasgow; she is too red
+in the face. Nor Katie Macqueen; you've seen her too often. Nor me,
+either, Rick, though I used to be called that sometimes."
+
+The transparent vanity in her tone made her nephew smile in his turn.
+
+"It's no home-grown beauty, Aunt Will. It's a London belle,--Lady Maud
+Wilson. You should just--"
+
+The sudden upset of a lamb, whose four pointed toes strove for
+foothold against his legs, checked further speech. His aunt, however,
+waving the teapot in her excitement, filled up the pause, aided by a
+sick gosling which had fluttered down from her lap as she rose.
+
+"The Wilsons! Why didn't you tell me at once? Have they come at last?
+And why didn't they come before? And where are their servants? Why
+didn't they send word to the factor? And goody gracious me, Rick! what
+are they going to do?"
+
+"If you'll put that teapot at a safer distance and prevent Baalam from
+making me curse utterly, I'll try and explain."
+
+A minute of frantic shoving, joined by a chorus of hounds from within,
+and Miss Will Macdonald returned breathless to her seat on the steps,
+while the sick gosling fluttered to her lap once more.
+
+"This is what I could gather. They have been deer-stalking with
+friends, because the grouse here were reported late. So they are, Aunt
+Will, I saw a covey yesterday--"
+
+"Skip, please."
+
+"Ahem! Well, their servants came by last _Clansman_; or rather they
+didn't, because--"
+
+"Skip again. I know--too rough for her to put in--won't come till
+return trip. Go on, dear."
+
+"How you do bustle a fellow! They expected cooks and scullions. All
+the show, in fact, including a but--"
+
+"Oh! do skip!"
+
+"My dear aunt! you should have been a telegraph clerk. Well. Wrote for
+a machine to Carbost. Came along. Place shut up. Rick Halmar fishing
+sea pool. Saw signals of distress. Piloted 'em to harbour. Found
+Kirsty stacking peats. Lit the fire. Put on the kettle. Came home to
+tell his aunt. That is all, except that the factor is away to the Alan
+market and Kirsty has no English to speak of."
+
+"They have servants with them of course?"
+
+"A French maid. She is more solid than she looks. You see I had to
+help her out of the machine. She hadn't recovered the boat. They have
+been visiting about, and Mr. Wilson's man got left behind at
+Inverness, looking for lost luggage. Wired to say he would come on by
+the afternoon boat. Ha! ha! good joke, isn't it? Afternoon boat to
+Roederay. Now then, jump aboard! a penny all the way."
+
+Miss Willina's sympathetic soul saw no cause for mirth in the
+vision conjured up by her housewifely imagination. She put on the
+deer-stalker cap lying on the step beside her. It was a signal for
+action, since, within the home precincts, she dispensed with any head
+covering save the thick masses of dark hair, which were still her
+greatest pride.
+
+"I'll go over. Kirsty is an idiot, at best. She was six whole months
+learning the 'Happy Land' at Sunday-school.
+
+"Besides it's not far--then your uncle's official position."
+
+"Skip, please!" interrupted Rick, laughing. "You don't want excuses
+for being a trump. Come along."
+
+His aunt's blue eyes flashed and sparkled. "Oh! my dear! was she so
+pretty as all that? You won't be wanted! her husband is there, of
+course."
+
+"Aye! and her cousin, I think. At least, she called him Eustace."
+
+"Two of them! Then preserve us from a third man. Go you and fish like
+a Christian."
+
+"Leaving you to roam the moors alone, when I may be appointed to a
+ship tomorrow and not see you again for--don't laugh in that rude way,
+Aunt Will! Look here! Let's compromise. I'll go so far and fish
+Loch-na-buie till you return."
+
+They passed the slight hollow where Eval House sought a faint shelter,
+and the farm-yard whence, after depositing the sick gosling, Miss
+Willina had to escape at a run from a motley following of birds and
+beasts. So to the level stretches of moor and the full force of the
+blustering wind. A strange landscape to southern eyes. Earth, air, and
+water blent in a triple alliance so close as to destroy individuality.
+The sea lay landwards, the land seawards, and over both the nor'wester
+swept unrestrained, cresting green waves of heather as water with an
+edging of white foam or purple blossom. Were those hills, eastward
+across the Minch, or clouds? Was that level streak of light westwards
+the Atlantic or a glint of sky? Was the water showing at your feet
+between miniature cliffs of sphagnum moss salt or fresh? And did the
+land really sway before the wind? or was it only your footstep making
+the spongy soil rise and fall? This, however, was in the low ground
+eastward. Westward the rocks began to pile themselves gregariously in
+cairns, and the moorland rose gradually, so gradually that when its
+edge was reached you were surprised to find yourself so far above the
+shining plain of sea.
+
+Here on a promontory commanding a magnificent view, and also a perfect
+exposure to all the winds of heaven, stood the modern shooting-box of
+Roederay Lodge.
+
+Substantial enough for the nineteenth century, yet reminding one
+irresistibly of those Swiss chalets in boxes which are to be bought
+for a sixpence in the Lowther Arcade. The fault, no doubt, of its
+surroundings; above all, of a sound which seemed to monopolize the
+whole landscape,--the sound of the Atlantic rolling in upon two miles
+of shelving sand a little to the southward. A sound that went on night
+and day, day and night, without a pause. Rhythmically true to a
+second, not to be shut out by any device of man. The strongest must
+put up with it or go away. On this particular September day, with the
+keen bright nor'wester sending a cross sea round the point, its voice
+had a querulous ring in it very different from the roar which echoed
+for fifteen miles across the island when the Atlantic was in a
+southwesterly mood.
+
+Rick Halmar, however, being a sailor accustomed to the sea in all
+tempers, took little heed of its tone. He sat to leeward of a cairn
+which tradition said marked the grave of a Viking, and whittled away
+at a piece of wood he had found close by, the pretence of fishing
+having been set aside when Miss Willina's decided little figure
+disappeared from sight. He whittled with more than the sailor's
+ordinary dexterity; for his father had been a Norwegian sprung from a
+long line of ancestors who had whiled away the winter days when their
+ships were in dock with wood-carving. Not much else save that trick of
+the knife, a straight Norse nose, and a passion for the sea had Eric
+Halmar inherited from the father he had never seen. For within a year
+of that hasty marriage between the shipwrecked sailor and Miss
+Willina's younger sister, pretty little Mrs. Halmar was in Eval House
+once more, weeping and waiting. Weeping for her handsome husband;
+waiting for her child to be born. She wept even after the waiting was
+over, till consolation came in the shape of another husband; for she
+was not a person of great steadfastness, and even her land prejudice
+against the sea as a profession had given way before Miss Willina's
+stern common sense.
+
+"The laddie thinks of nothing else," said his aunt; "indeed, why
+should he, seeing he comes of pure Viking blood on the one side, and
+something of it on the other, if old tales be true? Send him to the
+navy; then if he is drowned, it will be decently in the Queen's
+uniform."
+
+So into the navy he went, and, having passed through Greenwich, was
+now awaiting orders at Eval; where he found a most congenial playmate
+in his aunt.
+
+His still beardless face dimpled with smiles as he worked. To begin
+with, the wood, which had evidently been used as a cow peg, was
+mahogany. In other words, it must have been stolen from the drift pile
+on which his uncle, by virtue of his official position, was supposed
+to keep an eye, since the logs which the Gulf Stream leaves in its
+course are Government property. This amused Rick, seeing that the mere
+suggestion of such nefarious possibilities was a sure bait to his
+uncle's anger. Then the subject he had elected to carve seemed to him
+amusing. It was a replica of a Numbo Jumbo he had seen amongst the
+Caribbees, and which had tickled his fancy by its lavish ugliness. So
+his knife being a perfect tool-chest of implements, he gouged and
+punched, chiselled and filed, until, as he stuck the pointed end of
+the peg into the ground again, a very creditable copy of a malignant
+god stood before him.
+
+"It's the best I've done yet," he said to himself; "that dodge of the
+bread-pellet eyes with the shot in the middle of them gives the old
+devil quite a live look."
+
+He was not yet twenty-one, and boy enough to be proud of the ingenuity
+which had converted some sandwich crumbs and the lead off a cast into
+a pair of evil eyes. Man enough, however, to whistle "Who is Sylvia?"
+as he leant back against the cairn, smiling at Numbo Jumbo and
+thinking of Lady Maud.
+
+"Rick! you bad boy!" cried his aunt's eager voice just as he was
+beginning to forget everything in drowsiness. "You promised you
+wouldn't when I threw the last into the Minch, and this is worse, ever
+so much worse!"
+
+"Better, you mean. It's the best I've done. Look at its eyes!" Miss
+Willina pretended to shudder as her hand, instinct with righteous
+vengeance, went out towards the idol.
+
+"You might leave it there till we go," pleaded Rick. "It really is the
+best I've done by a long way. Then you could take it home Aunt Will,
+and have a real _auto-da-fe_. It's more orthodox than drowning;
+besides, it will help the peats to a blaze when we go in."
+
+She burst out suddenly into an amused laugh. "Peats!" she echoed. "Ah,
+Rick! if you had only seen them at Roederay. The room full of smoke,
+that lovely girl--she is beautiful, my dear--full of apologies. They
+took so long to kindle, she said. 'Excuse me,' said I, 'but you
+mustn't miscall a peat fire. It is the most hospitable one in the
+world.' They were all lying crisscross like a crow's nest, and you
+should have seen her relief when I had them standing shoulder to
+shoulder and they flared up like a Highland regiment at the skirl of
+the pipes. A little thing that, Rick, but so it was in all. I laughed
+till I cried. That house full of telephones, electric bells, hot-water
+pipes--all the modern whims--the factor says people won't take a
+shooting unless there is a fixed bath nowadays. Well! downstairs
+Kirsty and Janet the herd; four willing hands and no knowledge. I tell
+you, Kirst is just terrified of the dampers. 'Will it be blowing down
+the house, Miss Willina?' she says."
+
+"Skip, please."
+
+The remark met with a scornful neglect.
+
+"Then upstairs those three with the knowledge but never a hand.
+Brains--at least two of them had, for the husband seemed fickless and
+no action. There they couldn't understand each other, and Mr. Wilson
+went about with his hand in his pocket, asking if a five-pound note
+would do any good.
+
+"My dear sir," said I, "neither five, nor ten, nor fifteen will help
+us if the _Clansman_ can't put in to-morrow. So let us pray for fine
+weather. Then I promised to lend them our cook, and we became great
+friends. Only, I don't know why, I felt all along as if something was
+going to happen; a sort of conviction things were going wrong; a kind
+of doubt whether we were in our right places; a description of--"
+
+Miss Macdonald's presentiments were apt to embrace all things visible
+and invisible, so Rick made haste with a remark.
+
+"And what did you think of the other man,--Eustace?"
+
+The shot was lucky. She paused and sat looking out over moor and sea
+with a mysterious expression of self-complacent sagacity.
+
+"Well, auntie? you think--"
+
+"Nothing, my dear. Gracious goody! past four o'clock! the chickens not
+fed, the cows out in the wind, the ducklings still at the stream, the
+whole blessed Noah's Ark."
+
+She had risen with the first word, and started off like a lapwing, so
+that, ere she finished, distance deadened her voice.
+
+"Wait! please wait," shouted Rick; "the animals went in two by two,
+remember!"
+
+It was of no avail; so he caught up his rod and ran after her, leaving
+the idol to fulfil Miss Willina's role of sphinx.
+
+It had been dark some hours before she dropped her knitting with a
+purposely dramatic start.
+
+"Oh, Rick! didn't I say I had a presentiment? Now I've gone and left
+that wicked idol on the _harp_--on the Alt na heac _harp_ of all
+places in the world, and you a descendant of the Vikings!"
+
+Rick, at work on an infant Samuel for his aunt's room, looked up
+cheerfully.
+
+"Well, what has that to do with it?"
+
+"What? why, everything. Don't you know the legend? Everything left on
+that _harp_ disappears. The dead take it as a tribute, and if they
+don't like it, they send it back to work evil to the living for a
+month and a day."
+
+"Willina!"
+
+Mr. John Macdonald was a silent man, but when he did speak, his
+meaning was clear. "Where the devil you get all that rubbish passes
+me. I've lived longer in this island than you, I've seen more of the
+people than you, yet I never heard such trash."
+
+He dived back into his book as suddenly as he had emerged from it, and
+there was a dead silence.
+
+"Never mind, auntie," whispered Rick sympathetically; for these
+outbreaks were almost the only things which upset Miss Willina's
+majesty. "I'll go first thing and bring Numbo Jumbo back to be burnt."
+
+"Pray do not trouble," she replied with an audible sniff. "If I am
+foolish, I am foolish. If it is rubbish, I suppose it is rubbish. Only
+if anything happens, perhaps you will be considerate enough to admit
+that I foretold it."
+
+Her hurt dignity, however, vanished before Rick Halmar's face, when he
+came in to breakfast next morning minus the idol.
+
+"Gone! Oh, Rick! you don't mean it isn't there?" she cried, in not
+displeased excitement. "John! _do_ you hear? It's gone, and you said
+it was rubbish. What do you say now?" Mr. Macdonald affected not to
+hear.
+
+"Yes, it's gone," said Rick. "Numbo Jumbo's on the loose. I expect,
+really, that some of the crofter's children have taken it for a doll."
+
+"It is all very well for your uncle to scoff, Eric, but the young
+should have more reverence for the wisdom of their elders," retorted
+his aunt severely.
+
+"But Aunt Will!--you don't really believe--"
+
+"I am not responsible for my beliefs to _you_, Eric, whatever you may
+be to _me_, and perhaps if you have no respect for me as your aunt,
+you will please to recollect that I am also your godmother. It all
+comes of disobedience. 'Thou shalt not make to thyself--'"
+
+Rick leant back in his chair and roared.
+
+"And if you can't even remember that," she went on, bristling with
+dignity, "you might recollect the punishment meted out to the children
+who mocked at the bald heads."
+
+She paused, her hand went up suddenly to her coils of hair, she tried
+hard to keep her countenance, failed, and Mr. Macdonald's deep-toned
+laughter made a bass to her treble and Rick's tenor. That, nine times
+out of ten, was the end of Miss Willina's wrath.
+
+
+
+
+                                  II
+
+
+"I found it," said Professor Endorwick, laying Numbo Jumbo on the
+drawing-room table at Roederay, "as I was coming over the moor this
+morning, in order, Lady Maud, to finish a delightful walking tour by a
+still more delightful visit. Oddly enough, I found something similar
+on the Grada Sands yesterday, but this, I fear, is genuine, and
+therefore quite uninteresting. I have it in my knapsack if you will
+allow me. There! from the fracture you will observe that it has formed
+part of a handle, probably the paddle of a war canoe, as this
+grotesque, which represents the savage conception of Aete or Fate, is
+generally used for that purpose. It has drifted here, doubtless in the
+Gulf Stream, is therefore, as I said before, uninteresting, since most
+museums possess something of the sort. This, however, is very
+different. It is, you will again observe, of very recent construction.
+This, joined to the fact that I found it on a _harp_ or Viking's tomb
+famous in local tradition, points, to my mind, conclusively towards
+the survival amongst this primitive people of some, if not the
+original, cult of Fate. I need scarcely say that nothing is more
+difficult to track home than the faint footstep of a discredited
+belief, simply because rash inquiry results in prompt denial. I must
+therefore be careful, and I will ask you also, for the present at
+least, to preserve a kindly silence on my discovery."
+
+He looked round his company as if it were a full meeting of the
+British Association after lunch. As a matter of fact, it consisted of
+Lady Maud, her husband, and Eustace Gordon.
+
+They had barely finished breakfast when the professor, ignorant of
+their discomfort, walked in on them according to previous arrangement.
+Mr. Wilson, a slight, pleasant-looking man with a short beard covering
+his chin,--or want of chin,--had been moving restlessly from window to
+fireplace and back again during this speech, now drumming with his
+fingers on the sill, now transferring his attention to a fisherman's
+barometer on the mantelpiece, again slipping his hands to his pockets
+as if to force himself to quiet. Lady Maud, meanwhile, stood by the
+table looking at Numbo Jumbo and the despised original.
+
+"So you think the one with the eyes most interesting? and I don't."
+She raised the flotsam jetsam in her slender hands, scanning it more
+closely. "I wonder if you would give me this, professor," she said
+suddenly. "I've taken a great fancy to it."
+
+"My dear lady! I am only relieved to find you have not chosen the
+other," he replied with a gallant bow. "In either case, however, your
+desire is my law."
+
+"I believe that beast of a thing is going down again," muttered Mr.
+Wilson from the mantelpiece. "The _Clansman_ will never be able to
+come in to-morrow. It's too bad of Hooper, upon my soul it is."
+
+"My dear fellow," remonstrated Eustace, "anything will go down if it
+is continually thumped. It's a lovely day, a bit blowy, but it always
+blows on this coast. The warmth of the Gulf Stream."
+
+"Ah, confound the Gulf Stream!"
+
+Lady Maud turned to her husband in surprise.
+
+"What is the matter to-day, Edward? I didn't know a valet was such a
+hero to his master. Why, Josephine hasn't done a hand's turn since she
+caught sight of the steamer at Oban, but I don't complain."
+
+He muttered something about Hooper having been with him for years and
+stood looking gloomily out of the window with his back turned to
+everybody.
+
+Eustace Gordon gave a half-contemptuous shrug of his shoulders and a
+look at his cousin.
+
+"Come out and see the ghillies, Wilson," he said. "By the way, I sent
+to the inn for whiskey this morning; you see, professor, nothing can
+be done without it in these parts, so I hope you are not a total
+abstainer."
+
+The professor coughed gently. "I believe I am on principle. But having
+observed the fact you mention, I invariably carry a flask with me on
+my walking tours, merely, of course, as a means of acquiring
+information."
+
+Mr. Wilson burst into sudden boisterous laughter. "A good joke that.
+Come along! We all have a thirst for knowledge on us this morning."
+
+Lady Maud, left alone with the two carven images, took up the sea-waif
+and carried it off to her own sanctum, where she stuck it in the place
+of honour on the mantelshelf. Then, walking to the window, she looked
+out on pale green jostling waves and purple-green swaying heather.
+
+"I wonder when Louisa will turn up," she thought irrelevantly. "After
+all, she would have done better to come on with us and get it over,
+instead of waiting in the yacht for calmer weather. Suppose it were
+never to calm down?"
+
+She threw open the window with a reckless laugh. The fresh wind raced
+in, bellying the curtains like sails, catching her slender figure with
+such force that she was fain to cling to the sash as to a mast. So
+standing, with that background of surging sea, and one hand keeping
+her hair from her eyes, she looked as if she were adrift and searching
+the horizon for some familiar landmark.
+
+"Here's luck, and wissing you may all go back as you came, without any
+mistakes whatever."
+
+It was the spokesman ghillie from below, toasting the new tenant. She
+looked down to meet Eustace Gordon's amused eyes raised to hers; she
+smiled back at him, and, closing the window, returned to the
+fireplace. There, under the eye of fate personified in the war paddle,
+the phrase "go back as you came" struck her as a curious wish, perhaps
+even a somewhat infelicitous one, considering the discomfort of their
+arrival. Whereat she laughed, as she did at most things. Not all, for
+Lady Maud, despite many attempts, had never been able to get the whip
+hand of her conscience. She had to _menager_ it by driving round
+anything at which she thought it likely to shy. Her marriage to Mr.
+Wilson had been approached in this circuitous way until its manifest
+advantages completely obscured the central fact that she really loved
+her cousin Eustace. As yet repentance had not come to her; indeed, it
+came hardly to one so full of common sense and worldly wisdom as she
+was, but it came sometimes. Once as a child it had come suddenly in
+the sunlit solitary room into which she had been set apart for
+reflection, and she had knelt down to say naively, "Oh, God, I'm sorry
+now; but please don't make me sorry again, for I don't like it."
+
+That, briefly, was still her attitude towards the ideal. She did not
+love her husband, but she thought him sufficiently gentlemanlike and
+pleasing to save herself regret. She did, or rather she had, loved
+Eustace, but the idea of either of them permitting that past folly to
+interfere with the present they had deliberately chosen was absurd. To
+begin with, they would see little of each other, and when they did
+they would carefully avoid the renewal of any confidential relations;
+that was the great safety in these cases; for Lady Maud viewed the
+matter dispassionately, as a case.
+
+She came down to dinner that evening in a pale plush teagown, with
+long sleeves falling back from her bare arms, and smiled at
+everything. At the fact that she got on perfectly without Josephine's
+help; at the furtive way in which Kirsty set down the dinner, as if it
+were a bomb, and she in a hurry to escape the explosion; at her
+husband's continued anxiety about the weather; at the professor's
+profuse apologies for having intruded on them so inopportunely.
+
+"Not at all," she said gaily; "you will make a fourth at whist; Edward
+loves a rubber."
+
+"I can't play to-night," replied her husband. "I've a headache."
+
+"You do look a little flushed; perhaps it is the wind."
+
+"The wind!" he echoed petulantly; "of course it's the wind. Did you
+ever hear anything like it, Endorwick? I swear I never slept a wink
+last night, what with it and that confounded sea. It is enough to
+drive a fellow distracted."
+
+"You are as bad as Josephine," laughed his wife. "She has been in
+hysterics all day until Miss Macdonald's cook gave her a whole tumbler
+of hot whiskey and water. Since then she has been asleep."
+
+"We have all been trying that remedy," put in Eustace. "What with the
+men coming in, and the boats being engaged, we shall want more whiskey
+to-morrow, Wilson."
+
+"No, we shan't," retorted his host quickly; "I mean it's beastly
+stuff, you know. I never take anything but claret myself."
+
+"Awfully difficult to get decent claret nowadays," remarked Eustace
+with the ease, to him so delightfully new, of the rich man who
+quarrels with the supply and not the price. So the topic passed.
+
+"I'll have a cigar and go to bed; I didn't sleep a bit last night,"
+said Mr. Wilson shortly after they returned to the bare drawing-room,
+guiltless of all decoration, where Lady Maud's Parisian teagown looked
+so oddly out of place.
+
+"Take some hot whiskey and water," laughed his wife. "Won't you all go
+to the smoking-room? You must be tired, professor, after your long
+walk."
+
+But the learned man's social beliefs forbade cigars when a charming
+woman was the alternative, so he elected to remain. Being in reality
+much fatigued, however, he shortly afterwards gave way to the
+seductions of semi-darkness and an arm-chair. Semi-darkness because
+Kirsty's lamp smoking horribly, they preferred the light of the
+blazing peat fire. Outside the wind crooned round the house,--a
+lullaby to ears acquainted with its other notes, but to those
+accustomed to the stillness of the south, a banshee wail of coming
+trouble. With the firelight playing on the jet agraffes which held the
+cunning draperies on her gleaming bust and arms, Lady Maud was a
+picture few men could look on absolutely unmoved; but if Eustace
+Gordon felt the charm of her beauty, he gave no sign of it as yet.
+They sate there in the semi-darkness side by side, sometimes silent,
+sometimes talking indifferently of indifferent subjects. Alone, as
+utterly alone in the world as if they two were the only man and woman
+in it; for the barrier which luxury raises between one human being and
+another had given way. Supposing, for instance, the butler, instead of
+bobbing up and down on the Minch in the _Clansman_, had been at his
+post, would they have been sitting in semi-darkness uninterrupted by
+inroads for coffee cups, peats, and candles? Again, would any really
+high-class butler have permitted Professor Endorwick to snooze
+undisturbed in his chair, for two hours on end? Not that he did any
+harm by his slumbers; he might have awakened at any moment and joined
+unhesitatingly in the desultory talk of those two. True enough; yet
+when, at last, Eustace did rouse the learned man by lighting Lady
+Maud's candle, they both felt that the tete-a-tete had not left them
+quite as it found them; that in some of those half-indifferent
+ordinary remarks a virtue had gone out of them.
+
+She took the light from him, decidedly, with a refusal of his offer to
+pilot her along the dark passages; angry with herself for the very
+thought, she still felt that it would be wiser to say good-night here
+under the professor's eye; and as she went up the dim staircase, she
+paused to give a glance at the sea with a wonder as to when Louisa
+would find calm or courage enough to attempt the voyage. In a vague
+way, she recognized that things would go more comfortably if she were
+there. But beyond a sense of motion in the deep grey plane stretching
+away to a paler grey horizon, she could see nothing. The tide was
+flowing one way or another; that much was certain.
+
+She opened the door of her dressing-room softly, so as not to disturb
+her husband should he have fallen asleep. A great fire burnt bravely
+in her little sitting-room beyond, and something in the unusual
+silence of it all enhanced its comfort in her eyes. If Josephine had
+been awaiting her as usual, she could not have put off the task of
+undressing in favour of sheer idleness by the fire. Her husband was
+right; something in that rhythmical surge of the sea made one not
+exactly restless, but on the alert; disinclined for action, yet
+prepared for it. A foolish idea, since what could be going to happen
+to the small household already, for the most part, asleep? The
+professor would have taken the first opportunity of recommencing that
+snooze legitimately in his bed, and even Eustace,--why would her
+thoughts run on Eustace? Irritated at her own self-consciousness, she
+took up a book impatiently. It interested her, and, by and by, she
+turned for the second volume, to find that it must have been left in
+the travelling bag which Kirsty's ignorance had put in the bedroom.
+Shading the light carefully, she passed through the dressing-room, and
+so into the room beyond, giving a tentative glance at the bed as she
+entered, lest she should disturb the sleeper. It was empty. Her hand
+fell from the light; she looked round the room in surprise, and the
+next moment was on her knees beside a figure on the floor,--a figure
+which even in her first alarm brought back a horrible memory.
+
+"Edward! what is the matter? Are you ill?"
+
+Once, as a slip of a girl out blackberrying, she had come upon a tipsy
+tramp in a ditch; a beast of a man who had met her innocent
+benevolence by stumbling to his feet, pursuing her as far as his feet
+would carry him. This was her solitary personal experience of
+drunkenness, and something in her husband's look and attitude revived
+the dread which had remained with her ever since. Yet he might be
+ill--very, very ill--
+
+"Edward! what is it?"
+
+This time he raised an unsteady arm against the candle she held to his
+face, and she shrank back, shaking all over. Her first impulse was
+that of civilization,--to ring for help, at least for company. But
+what good would that do in an empty house? Josephine, until other
+women came to share her fears, had elected to sleep in a great
+chamber on the upper storey. Besides, what good would she be? Kirsty
+slept outside with the other farm servants. Eustace! no, no! not
+Eustace,--not now at any rate,--not till she was certain. There was
+the cook, of course; people in that rank of life were accustomed--oh,
+no! no! it was not possible. What a wretch she was to harbour such
+suspicions, when he might be ill--perhaps dying. With this protest in
+her mind, her rich draperies caught over her arm, the candle flaring,
+guttering, almost out in the swift search, she made her way to the
+unknown regions beyond the swing door, which separated work from
+leisure. Here? No! that must be the pantry. There? No! that was the
+gun-room. So, peering in at each room, she went along the stone
+passages till suddenly a door right in front of her opened, and
+Eustace Gordon came out, with a candle in his hand. He had been
+sitting up over the smoking-room fire, impelled, as she had been, to
+wakefulness by something, he knew not what.
+
+"Maud! Maud, my darling! What is it? What is the matter?"
+
+She forgot everything in the comfort of companionship as, still
+shaking with fear, she went swiftly to his side.
+
+"Edward. I think he is ill. Oh, Eustace, I am so frightened!"
+
+And he in his turn, taken utterly by surprise, seemed to forget
+everything save that the woman he loved passionately was there beside
+him. His thoughts had been so full of her, nothing but her, and now--
+
+"Oh, come! please come; he is ill. I know he is ill."
+
+"Yes! I am coming," he said with an effort at self-control. "Where is
+he--in your room?"
+
+Then, with his arm round her, they went back through the silent house
+together. Those two alone. Yet not, it seemed to her, so much alone as
+when they stood at last with that drunken figure lying on the floor
+between them. She knew the truth at once in his quick exclamation, and
+then everything under sun and stars seemed to slip away and leave them
+face to face. "Eustace and she." "Eustace and me." The low rush of the
+waves caught the refrain and repeated it ceaselessly.
+
+"Don't be alarmed; you had better go away."
+
+She heard the words as in a dream, scarcely recognizing the voice in
+its harsh passion. "Stay, he shall not remain here; not here in your
+room." Then she felt his hands grip hers, and the voice rang with
+fierce resentment.
+
+"Maud! Maud! that this should have come to you--to you of all people.
+By heaven, it is too much. I will not bear it."
+
+She laughed suddenly and broke from him. "You mean that he has
+taken too much whiskey. Well! plenty of men do that, and you others
+think--think none--none the worse." Then she broke down, flinging her
+arms across the bed by which she had been standing. "Oh, my God! what
+shall I do? what shall I do?"
+
+Her outburst calmed him.
+
+"Go into the other room, dear; I will call some one."
+
+She turned on him as she knelt like a wild animal at bay.
+
+"No! not the servants! no one shall know. I will not have it. Let me
+help. I am quite strong."
+
+"Do you think I'd let you touch him?" he burst out. "Go! I'll manage."
+
+She crept away, cowed by his vehemence, overcome by the desire to obey
+which subdues most women when the command is from one they love. Back
+to the fire she had left so short a time ago. It was dull now, but a
+touch sent the responsive flames leaping up the chimney. Would any
+amount of care restore that confidence in herself which but an hour
+ago had defied fate? Eustace and she--Eustace and me. What evil chance
+was this?
+
+She started from a maze of confused fear at his knock at her door.
+
+"A light, please. You have no bed here, and none of the other rooms
+are fit for you to-night; so I have brought this. I had to leave
+him--there."
+
+"Why should you trouble?" she asked drearily, with lack-lustre eyes on
+his burden of blankets and pillows. "I can so easily sit up; it must
+be near morning now."
+
+He gave her a look so full of passionate adoration that her eyes fell
+before it.
+
+"Do you think I am going to let you suffer one little bit--one atom of
+discomfort because of _him?_ No, that shall not be; you shall never
+suffer."
+
+"How can you help it?"
+
+"How can you ask? We may have made a mistake, Maud; perhaps we
+_hav'n't_ God knows. But if we have, why then--" He came over to where
+she was standing and took her hands in his. So they stood, those two
+alone, with nothing between them save a conscience which could be
+turned aside; every barrier raised by the world broken down by a
+strange fate, by a mere turn of the tide.
+
+"Good-night, dear," he said, stooping to kiss her.
+
+She made no reply, no protest; perhaps in her heart of hearts she knew
+that he said the truth. That if it was a mistake, why then--
+
+The waves caught up that refrain also, as she lay with wide, sleepless
+eyes on the little camp-bed with which his care had provided her. "It
+is a mistake--you shall not suffer--it is a mistake--you shall not
+suffer."
+
+
+
+
+                                 III
+
+
+When she woke next morning, a be-capped and be-aproned upper housemaid
+was bringing in her early cup of tea.
+
+"Yes, milady, we 'ave hall come. Mr. 'Ooper 'e 'ave come too, milady.
+Indeed, if it 'adn't bin for Mr. 'Ooper, we should 'ave bin picking
+hup cattle in that horful Minch till hevenin'; but 'e took it on
+'imself to tell the capting as master would willin' pay hextra for us
+to come as quick as might be. And thankful we was, milady, for some of
+us mightn't 'ave lived to see land."
+
+Jane looked as if she certainly would have been one of those to
+succumb, and Lady Maud gave a sigh of relief.
+
+"Tell Hooper to go to his master,--he wasn't very well last
+night,--and tell Josephine I shall breakfast in my room."
+
+"Mr. 'Ooper 'ave gone to master," replied Jane in a voice which
+implied that the reminder was unnecessary; "and if you please, milady,
+Capting Weeks 'e 'ave come too. We picked 'im up with some cattle in a
+boat from some place as begins with an 'Hoich.'"
+
+Lady Maud gave another sigh of relief. The sand-bags of civilization
+were a great protection after all; and if Captain Weeks had come,
+Eustace would go out shooting with him. That would give her a whole
+day to face the situation. Honestly, she thought far more of possible
+difficulties with him than with her husband. The shock had been
+terrible at the time, but perhaps, after all, it was an isolated
+offence. Heaps of men in society got drunk decently out of sight of
+their legal womenkind, and no one thought-- The recurrence of the
+phrase she had used the night before made her pause and hide her face
+in the pillow in sudden horror at herself and him. No! without going
+so far as that, one could still be rational. Edward was devoted to
+her, and if a wife by her influence made a better man of her husband,
+wherein lay the degradation? Last night--great heavens! what had come
+over her last night? She had been taken by surprise, placed in
+conditions which no one could possibly have foreseen, dragged by main
+force from every shelter. Her face burnt as she remembered, and yet
+how natural it had been! Natural and therefore absurd, ridiculous.
+To-day, however, was different, and so the little pencilled note from
+Eustace, which Josephine brought in with the breakfast, received no
+reply save a message to say she was perfectly well and hoped he would
+look after Captain Weeks, if Mr. Wilson was not able to go out. A bold
+parry, which made Eustace Gordon set his teeth.
+
+Yes! to-day was different; a new heaven and a new earth. The very
+house transformed; for when she came down to lunch, the drawing-room
+was full of tables, screens, photographs, and ferns, while in the
+dining-room the butler stood ready to remove the silver covers, and so
+let loose the pent-up energies of two footmen who, with bent heads,
+seemed waiting for some one to say grace. Mr. Gordon, the report ran,
+had taken Captain Weeks to the Carbost beat, and would not be back
+till late. Her ladyship was to open any telegram which might come, as
+it would relate to the yacht. Mr. Wilson had gone to shoot rock-pigeon
+with the head keeper. The professor was exploring, and begged her
+ladyship not to wait lunch for him. So said the butler gravely as he
+filled her glass. Through the window she could see the Atlantic
+guiltless of a white feather, and her own courage rose with the
+outlook. As she strolled about the heathery knolls after lunch, a boy
+on a pony appeared with the expected telegram. "Started, should be
+with you to-morrow." So that was an end of one trouble. Then Cynthia
+Strong and some others were to come by the next boat. Will Lockhart
+was cruising about the coast and might look in on them at any time.
+There would be no more solitude; not even to-day, since there across
+the moor came Miss Macdonald, attired for calling, and beside her that
+good-looking young sailor. Lady Maud liked boys, especially handsome
+ones with palpable adoration in their blue eyes.
+
+The professor, coming in very hot about tea-time, found the trio
+having it like children out in a bieldy bit by the burn, but with the
+butler solemnly presiding over the fire. A fire which gave James, the
+under footman, the hugest delight until his enjoyment was crushed out
+of him by his superior officer. For the butler knew his duty:
+afternoon tea was afternoon tea wherever her ladyship chose to take
+it; that is to say, a function at which a footman must preserve an
+impassive face. So poor James put on the sticks with funeral calm and
+burnt his fingers with great decorum.
+
+"Here is a lady, professor," said Lady Maud,--"Miss
+Macdonald--Professor Endorwick,--who will tell you everything you can
+possibly want to know about the island. She is a mine of useful
+information; at least I have found her so."
+
+That gracious voice, face, and manner had been a sort of rapture to
+young Rick Halmar for the last half hour, and when, after launching
+the others into conversation, she turned to him with the undefinable
+change in manner she could no more avoid in talking to men than the
+magnet can keep its influence, his heart gave quite a throb.
+
+"I didn't introduce you," she said, smiling, "because I only know your
+Christian name; and I'm not sure of that."
+
+"Rick! Rick Halmar," he replied with a blush which took him by
+surprise; for he was not as a rule self-conscious.
+
+"Rick?" she echoed curiously.
+
+"Eric. My father was a Norwegian. But it was a boshy name and the
+fellows on the _Britannia_ called me 'Little by Little'--after the
+book, you know."
+
+She laughed. "A very inappropriate name, Mr. Halmar. You must be six
+feet."
+
+He shook his head. "Five feet eleven and three-quarters. It's too big
+for a sailor. You get in the way of the ropes and things."
+
+"Not too big for a man--but listen! the professor is overcome already;
+how delightful!"
+
+In good sooth he was actually reduced to the position of listener, an
+isolated assertion of interest being all the speech allowed him as
+Miss Willina waxed eloquent over the crass superstitions of the
+islanders and her own select beliefs.
+
+Rick's face grew brimful of smiles.
+
+"Aunt Will is as bad as the best, herself. Why, the other day I carved
+out a sort of devil,--a thing they worship in the Caribbees,--and she
+was in quite a taking because it was left out on a _harp_,--that's a
+Viking's tomb, Lady Maud. She has some rigmarole about 'tribute to the
+dead,' their sending back things to work evil to the living. But, do
+you know, Lady Maud, it's awfully rum, but I couldn't find the thing
+when I went to look for it yesterday morning."
+
+"You couldn't find it? Mr. Halmar, don't speak loud; don't
+attract their attention by looking surprised! Was it--the devil, I
+mean--fearfully ugly?"
+
+"The best I ever made."
+
+"Had it white eyes with a shot stuck in them?"
+
+"Lady Maud! did you find it?"
+
+"Not I, but the professor did. It's a footstep of a discredited
+belief, and he is going to lecture on it to the British Association.
+Isn't it perfectly lovely? How we shall all laugh!"
+
+"But you will tell him, of course?"
+
+"Tell him! Why should I? These things are one of my chief joys in
+life."
+
+Rick Halmar winced. "But don't you see, Lady Maud, it's my fault more
+or less? I oughtn't to go carving devils and leaving them about. It
+isn't fair."
+
+She raised her eyebrows. "When you are older, Mr. Halmar, you won't be
+so eager to accept responsibility. By the way, does yours extend to
+another devil of the same sort which was found on Grada Sands?"
+
+He let his head drop into his hands in comic despair. "How one's sins
+_do_ find one out! It must be the one Aunt Will flung into the Minch.
+Everything comes round sooner or later to the sands. Has the professor
+got it too?"
+
+"No, Mr. Halmar. _I_ have it."
+
+"You! Oh, Lady Maud--I am sorry."
+
+"You well may be. I have put it into my own room because the professor
+declared it was genuine--a real savage fate. No--that isn't true, so
+don't distress yourself. I took a fancy to it. I have a habit of
+taking fancies to _things_ and to _people_; so there it shall remain."
+
+Rick's face lit up. "Let me make you a better one," he began.
+
+"I said, Mr. Halmar, that I took a fancy to _it_; and now, don't you
+think you should make your confession like a good boy?"
+
+He made it very prettily, but with a frank enjoyment of the mistake,
+which was infectious. So much so, that the chief sufferer, stimulated
+into unusual playfulness by Miss Willina's wit, actually went into the
+house for his discredited belief and brought it out for her to burn.
+
+So, with much laughter, they stood round the fire, causing poor James
+almost to burst under his efforts after dignity, till suddenly, with
+something between a chuckle and a cough, the butler himself gave way
+into the remark that "I 'adn't made a Guy Forks--_kck-kh-kh_--since 'e
+was a boy,--_kh-kh-kh_,--but if 'er ladyship pleased, Jeames could run
+round to the gun-room for some powder and 'e'd 'ave some squibs ready
+in no time."
+
+So Numbo Jumbo was burnt with all the honours, and the butler, going
+back for his own tea to the housekeeper's room, hummed, "Remember,
+remember, the fifth of November," until the cook, with a snort, asked
+wherever to goodness he had picked up such a vulgar ditty.
+
+"Now I have no doubt all you learned people think me very foolish,"
+said Miss Willina, drawing on her gloves with the air of one who has
+completed a good work; "but I really am immensely relieved in my mind.
+I had a presentiment about that devil of Rick's; besides, these old
+superstitions invariably have their origin in some fundamental fact or
+law of Nature. Don't you think so, professor?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, my dear madam; the Folklore Society--"
+
+But Miss Willina had a profound contempt for all societies and
+proclaimed it cheerfully. "Therefore, the only remaining thing to be
+done," she continued, shaking her head at Rick, "is to make
+restitution for that naughty boy's mischief. So, if you will walk over
+to Eval some day, Mr. Endorwick, I will give you that bone ring with
+the Runic inscription about which I was telling you."
+
+"My dear lady," cried the professor with greed in his eyes, "I really
+could not dream--"
+
+"I don't want to give it to _you_, of course," she went on frankly;
+"but my brother says it should be in a museum; so you can put 'Given
+by Miss Macdonald through Professor Endorwick' on the ticket. And, by
+the bye, it was found on Grada and Malcolm, Aig says."
+
+Meanwhile Lady Maud had turned to Rick with a quizzical smile. "Do you
+accept the responsibility of my fate, Mr. Halmar? or shall I have a
+private _auto-da-fe_ in my room?"
+
+The boy's face positively shone with pleasure as he took her hand to
+say goodbye.
+
+"I couldn't do anything that would bring you harm, I think--you are
+too--too beautiful." The absolute simplicity of the statement rendered
+it inoffensive, and Lady Maud laughed.
+
+"Take your nephew away, Miss Macdonald; he is paying me compliments."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," retorted the little lady, nodding her head,
+"and compliments are pleasant things; at least, I used to find them
+so."
+
+"Why employ the past tense, dear lady?" said the professor with a bow,
+as he shook hands, whereat Miss Willina declared that the only safety
+lay in flight; and Lady Maud, as she went back to the house, told
+herself once more that to-day was very different from yesterday. This
+background of _persiflage_, with just a serious touch here and there
+to help out the chiaro-oscuro, suited figures in modern dress.
+Tailor-made figures guiltless of a wrinkle and oblivious of vitality's
+claim for an uncrushed organ or two.
+
+"If her ladyship please," said Josephine, when the dressing bell
+brought her to her mistress' room, "Mr. 'Ooper, he desire a few word
+of milady."
+
+"Hooper! didn't they say he had gone with Mr. Wilson?"
+
+"Monsieur 'ave just return; Mr. Gordon also wid Capitaine Veek
+and--_Mon Dieu! quel gibier!_ Sall I bid him come?"
+
+Lady Maud, at the writing-table, rested her head on her hand, feeling
+a sudden need of courage. They had all come back, and some things must
+be faced before life could run smoothly once more. Eustace must be
+made to understand that there was to be no drifting, and her husband
+must consent to let her hand be on the tiller ropes.
+
+"Well, Hooper?"
+
+Rather a diffident-looking man; nervous too in his manner. "I am sorry
+to have to trouble your ladyship, but I think Dr. Haddon would wish
+it, under the circumstances. It is about master, your ladyship."
+
+Her heart gave a great throb. "Your master, Hooper? Well?"
+
+The diffident man, holding on to the doorknob as for support, cleared
+his throat. "It is a little difficult, my lady, and Mr. Gordon, when
+he spoke to me, was for saying nothing; but I have been considering
+the matter and I think Dr. Haddon--"
+
+"Who is Dr. Haddon?"
+
+"I was not quite sure if your ladyship knew--anything. But master was
+under Dr. Haddon for a time. It--it is for the liquor habit, my lady,
+and Dr. Haddon is most successful. He was most successful with master.
+Four years I have been with him since we came back from America, and
+never till last night--" he coughed slightly and paused. Lady Maud
+sate staring at him without a word.
+
+"I am very sorry, my lady. The other servants will tell you how
+distressed I was to be absent from my duty. It arose from my not
+understanding the porter's accent, my lady; but it will not occur
+again. I mean, my lady, that--ahem--nothing of the sort will occur
+again. So there is no need for--for distress or anxiety."
+
+"You mean that as long as--as you are with Mr. Wilson--" so far she
+managed in a cold hard voice; then came silence.
+
+"Just so, my lady--it is a question of influence. I undertake the
+entire responsibility. There is really no cause for alarm."
+
+"That--that will do, Hooper; you can go." Her one thought was to get
+rid of this man, this servant, who seemed to have reached out his
+common hand and touched her very soul. He paused, still with his hand
+on the door.
+
+"I beg pardon, my lady, but there is one thing. Dr. Haddon's system is
+based on influence. It does not allow any appeal to--ahem--to the
+moral sense. Therefore, if your ladyship could kindly treat the
+mistake of yesterday with silence, it would be better--for the system.
+Dr. Haddon ignores failure on principle, it--it is part of the system;
+and any interference may be dangerous. Therefore, if your ladyship--"
+
+"I quite understand. You can go."
+
+When she was left alone, she sate staring on at the door he had closed
+behind him. Behind whom? why the man who--oh! it was an impossible, an
+incredible, position! She had married her husband without caring for
+him, but she had married him also because she intended that he
+_should_ care for her. And now! What was he but a puppet, dependent
+on this man? She had not married Edward Wilson, but Wilson-cum-Haddon,
+-cum-Hooper. And Eustace knew it! Her husband, the possible father of
+her children! She had known all along that he was a weak man, but that
+the very possibility of his living decently lay in the will of another
+was hopeless, horrible degradation. She had often in society talked
+lightly of the part hypnotism was to play in the future regeneration
+of the world; but now that even a suspicion of it touched her inner
+life, it left her in wild revolt. When all was said and done, that man
+to whom they paid so many pounds a year was master of her fate. It
+should never be! Better, far better, that her husband should be drunk;
+and yet what right had she to interfere?
+
+"It will be too late to make milady _charmante_," suggested Josephine,
+coming in, reproachfully.
+
+She stood up hastily with clenched hands. Eustace should not see her
+degradation--she would show him--
+
+"There is plenty of time," she said coldly. "Put on my diamonds,
+Josephine--that dress is dull. They can wait if I am not ready."
+
+She was worth waiting for, and Mr. Wilson's weak face brightened as
+she went up to him with easy grace. "Did you have a good day, Edward?
+I saw Hooper for a moment, but I forgot to ask him about the sport."
+
+She failed in her object for all her bravado. The eyes she sought to
+blind saw too clearly.
+
+"So Louisa comes to-morrow," she said lightly, as, after keeping all
+the men, her husband included, at her feet during the evening, she
+rose to say good-night and let her hand linger purposely in her
+cousin's, so that he should see she did not care, that she was not
+afraid.
+
+"No!" he replied coldly; "I've had another wire. She came as far as
+Portree, and, hearing that the gathering is next week, decided to stay
+and show off her new dresses. She got about a ton of them in Paris if
+you remember, and women, even the best of them, love to show off."
+
+His tone roused her to reckless resentment by its assumption of
+knowledge and condemnation.
+
+"He does not look very sorry for his wife's decision, does he,
+professor?" she asked with a laugh.
+
+"My dear lady, how could he be sorry for anything, in his present
+position?"
+
+"Or I in mine?" she retorted, giving a little mock curtsey over the
+hand she still held.
+
+Eustace Gordon bit his lip, but said nothing.
+
+
+
+
+                                  IV
+
+
+"You look worried," said Will Lockhart; "the place doesn't suit you. I
+told you it wouldn't when we hid behind Charity. Is there anything
+really the matter?" his voice took a softer tone, "anything I could
+help you to set straight?"
+
+They were sitting by the fire in Lady Maud's little sitting-room,
+whither they had retired from the bustle inseparable from tea in the
+drawing-room when bad weather keeps even the sportsmen indoors. He
+said the truth; she looked worn and fagged, and her pose as she leant
+back in her easy-chair was one of listless fatigue.
+
+"Nonsense! There is nothing the matter; nothing more than the usual
+worries of a hostess in tiresome weather. To begin with, it has
+prevented your coming here till you can only spare us a miserable day
+on your way to rejoin the yacht. Then Louisa, after wasting a fine
+week over the Portree gathering, was detained there ten days by storm.
+Finally, just as she started for the Highlands one at Inverness _pour
+passer le temps_, it cleared up. Since then it has been what is called
+unsettled; most of all for poor Eustace, who never knows for two days
+together what is going to happen. Then Lady Liddell caught cold at a
+picnic, and Cynthia Strong, whom I invited for the professor,--a
+Girtonite you know, does mathematics and all that,--seems uncertain
+whether she doesn't prefer Arthur Weeks, a man who hasn't a penny and
+can't do a sum beyond the compound addition of his bills."
+
+"A catalogue of evils, certainly."
+
+"That isn't all. The professor, who would make her an excellent
+husband, being in that set and with a charming house too at Oxford,
+does nothing but go over to Eval House to see Miss Macdonald--you knew
+her once, I think--well, he looks on her as an encyclopaedia of
+discredited beliefs, a unique copy of an ancient work on folk-lore
+which the lucky finder is bound to purchase. Besides, she has a
+valuable collection--"
+
+"When I knew her," broke in Will Lockhart hotly, "she did not need any
+adventitious attractions; she was simply the loveliest--"
+
+Lady Maud's languid hands met in faint applause.
+
+"I thought that would draw you. So she was the _mauvais quart
+d'heure_. I am not really laughing, so don't be angry; only from the
+way she spoke of you--"
+
+"Did she speak of me?"
+
+"How can you ask? And women never speak of the men who have loved them
+in the same tone of voice they use for the dense, indiscriminating
+multitude who didn't."
+
+"Then Miss Macdonald's voice must change pretty often."
+
+"Ah! was that it? you were jealous."
+
+"Nothing so romantic. We quarrelled over some bread and butter--we
+were very young. Then circumstances favoured absence, so forgetfulness
+came, or at least indifference, absolute indifference." He paused for
+a moment. "And so the professor is there constantly, is he?"
+
+Lady Maud smiled behind the fan with which she screened her face from
+the fire.
+
+"He is there now, I expect. He went dune-hunting in the south this
+morning, and was to stop there for the night. Thought he might be
+late; besides, he must consult the encyclopaedia."
+
+Will Lockhart frowned. "This has made us drift from the point. Your
+husband, does he like the place?"
+
+"Apparently. And the servants are satisfied too, which is a great
+gain. They get all their work done for them by the natives. It is an
+immense relief to shift one's responsibilities to other folks'
+shoulders, isn't it?"
+
+He looked at her sharply. "There _is_ something the matter. Is it only
+other people's love-affairs? And what, for instance, of that handsome
+boy downstairs who does Sir Walter Raleigh's cloak for your Majesty's
+feet all day long?"
+
+Lady Maud leant forward eagerly, her whole face alight. "You mean
+Rick. Do you remember once, when you were very angry with me, saying I
+was enough to ruin any man in a week? It wasn't true, Big Bear. I
+couldn't spoil Rick Halmar."
+
+"Have you tried and failed?" he asked cynically.
+
+She shook her head and a soft half-smiling, half-tearful look came to
+her pretty eyes.
+
+"You don't know him, and I can't explain. Yet I tell you that I
+couldn't spoil one of that dear lad's happy days unless--" she broke
+off suddenly, raising her eyes to the image on the mantelshelf. "He
+carved that devil up there," she went on with the smile gaining on the
+tears. "The professor said it was a savage conception of fate, but it
+isn't. It is Rick Halmar's conception of my fate, and that--well, that
+hasn't much of the devil in it. Come! it is time I was returning to my
+duties as hostess."
+
+"Time for me to be going also," he replied, looking at his watch. "I
+have seven miles before me."
+
+"Not if you make use of the Eval ferryboat." She looked at him
+mischievously.
+
+"I do not intend to make use of it, even to oblige you, Lady Maud. I
+might meet the professor, and then there would be a petty-assault
+case."
+
+"Of course! How tiresome you are! I counted on your being here a week
+at least, and people can unmake ever so many quarrels in seven days."
+
+"Or make them. But the elements are too strong for you, Lady Maud. I
+told you so."
+
+Rick Halmar came up as, still smiling over the joke, they entered the
+drawing-room.
+
+"I'm so glad. I was afraid you might not come before I left, and I
+must go soon."
+
+"Then you can pilot Mr. Lockhart a little way. He has to walk over to
+Carbost Bay."
+
+"A good bit of the way, you mean," replied Rick, turning his bright
+face towards Will Lockhart's. "Our ferry is far the shortest; in fact,
+it's the only road, for the upper-end bridge gave way in the flood
+last night and the stream isn't fordable yet!"
+
+Lady Maud's eyebrows went up archly.
+
+"What a nuisance the elements are at times; aren't they, Mr.
+Lockhart?"
+
+"I should think so," assented Rick cheerfully. "Why, we have been
+trying to get to Eilean-a-fa-ash these three weeks--haven't we, Lady
+Maud?--without catching a fine day and a suitable tide on the hop
+together. The sea ford might have done last spring, but it was too
+rough for the ladies to return by boat, or else too wet. But the first
+fine day. That is it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Halmar!" cried Cynthia Strong from the window seat where
+Captain Weeks was blissfully useful over a skein of wool. "And please
+order the fine day soon, for I have to go by the next _Clansman_."
+
+"Then I shall go too," murmured the captain.
+
+"I suppose the birds will be getting rather wild by that time,"
+remarked the young lady tartly. Theoretically, she felt bound to
+despise her admirer and his occupations; practically, his murmurs made
+her heart beat.
+
+"Wild! Why, they lie like stones on this coast. Something to do with
+the Gulf Stream, I'm told, though I know nothing myself about these
+scientific things. But you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like chickens
+on the last day of the season."
+
+"And when is that?"
+
+Captain Weeks laughed,--the true man's laugh of surprised tolerance.
+"I thought you knew everything, Miss Strong; but I don't suppose they
+think it worth while to teach girls. It's the 10th of December for
+grouse, but partridges go on till the beginning of February, and
+there's no real close time for--" His voice fell to the confidential
+tone. Eustace Gordon had meanwhile joined the trio at the door.
+
+"Yes! let it be soon, please; for I may be going also. I've just
+heard, Maud, from Louisa, and the last idea is that I am to take the
+yacht, which she is sending here, round to Cowes, and that we are to
+start at once for less uncertain climes. The Mediterranean, most
+likely."
+
+"That is very--unexpected. But all my friends are flying south, like
+the swallows."
+
+"And I have to go furthest of all," said Rick ruefully. "I'm booked
+for the Pacific Station, as sure as fate."
+
+"Then you must send me home a real Numbo Jumbo if you come across
+one," she replied, smiling up into his eager boyish face with a
+confidence absolutely free from all alloy.
+
+"Won't I! and some of those jolly shells too; all the pretty things I
+can pick up."
+
+"Thank you, Rick; I like pretty things."
+
+He flushed with pleasure at her tone and words.
+
+"Well, good-bye," she said, turning to Will Lockhart. "I hope the
+elements won't be too strong for you."
+
+"Or for you."
+
+Confidence here also, but of a different sort,--the sort which can
+give a reason for the faith that is in it. It seemed, however, as if
+Lady Maud's wish was not to be fulfilled; for as Rick Halmar and his
+companion set off across the moor, the southwest wind, even at that
+distance from the shore, sent a shower of spindrift in their faces.
+
+"No leaving Carbost Bay for you tonight," shouted Rick against the
+wind. "You had better stay at our place. You used to know Aunt Will
+long ago, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, but I must get on. It may calm any moment, and the yacht sails
+as soon as possible."
+
+Nevertheless when, after scudding with the wind at their backs for two
+miles, they came upon the ferry, one glance showed even Will
+Lockhart's inexperienced eye that the cockleshell of a boat, bobbing
+up and down in the backwater, could never fight its way through that
+mad melee of wind against tide in the middle of the narrow stream.
+Comparative calm reigned to one side in the inland loch, and to the
+other in the open sea; but here the waves leapt at each other in
+pyramids, sending jets of spray upwards with the very force of their
+meeting. A good thrower could easily have flung a stone across the
+channel; for all that, it was impassable till the tired tide should
+turn and join the wind in its race eastward. So, at any rate, said
+Rick, adding that his aunt would be delighted at a _contretemps_ which
+would procure her a visit from an old friend.
+
+Why Will Lockhart should have hesitated, when it was raining cats and
+dogs, and it was two-and-twenty years since he had parted in anger
+from the hot-headed, quick-tongued chit of eighteen, who was now, by
+all accounts, a brisk, contented woman of forty, is not easy of
+explanation. Perhaps the thought of Lady Maud's triumph rankled;
+perhaps, when all was said and done, he was not quite indifferent to
+that possible future with the professor. But he did hesitate for a
+moment. That early love-affair had strangely enough been his first and
+last: not because it was in itself absorbing, but because other things
+more absorbing than Love had stepped in to take possession of his
+life. For a year or two, no doubt, resentment had lingered, not very
+keenly felt, but sufficiently so to prevent other love-affairs. Then
+he had painted his first successful picture, and that had been an end
+of all things, save Art, and a rather unreal remembrance that he had
+loved and lost.
+
+However, common sense came to his aid, as it was bound to do in
+that drenching rain. And, after all, the professor was not in the
+well-remembered drawing-room whither Rick led him; neither was Miss
+Willina. Fortunately, perhaps, for her dignity, of which she was
+extremely tenacious, she had been in the potting-shed feeding a late
+brood of chickens presented to her that morning by an inexperienced
+young mother, who had preferred a bed of nettles behind the peat stack
+to the comforts of the hen-house nursery. So she had ample opportunity
+of seeing them pass up the ferry-path and of grasping the situation;
+to say nothing of smoothing her hair and washing her hands, before
+putting in an appearance; the which is a great support to most women
+in the crises of life. As a matter of fact, however, Miss Willina had
+never regarded this episode of her earliest years of conquest as one
+of supreme importance; perhaps some slight inkling that it really did
+mean more than she was prepared to admit was at the bottom of her
+deliberate want of romance on the subject. She had had many admirers,
+had them still for that matter; she was perfectly aware, for instance,
+of the professor's interest; but, for all that, she had never felt
+inclined to marry since those salad days when she had drowned her
+resentment in the knowledge that half the men who knew her were at her
+feet. Why should she marry? There was plenty of time and opportunity
+if she wished it; and then, when time passed, leaving her still Miss
+Macdonald, she told herself and every one else that it was of her own
+free will and pleasure. As it undoubtedly was. She scouted regrets,
+and only when the masterful current of her vitality slackened, as even
+hers had to do at times, did she wonder if that early love-affair had
+not been at the bottom of her cold-bloodedness.
+
+Will Lockhart did not think her much changed. The daintiness and
+wilfulness he chiefly remembered were still there, and it was like old
+times to hear her order him up with Rick, to "change his feet," and
+see the swift touch with which she rescued an antimacassar from
+annihilation when he sate down. And this want of change depressed him,
+by emphasizing the long years which he could not forget.
+
+There she was, much as he remembered her, and he--people told him also
+that he had changed but little. Yet in those old days it had seemed
+impossible to conceive of life apart, and here they were, both free,
+both unmarried, talking calmly, with a new generation for listener,
+about that past time. What had kept them separate except their own
+free will? Nothing! and yet had either of them deliberately
+anticipated this ending when they quarrelled over the bread and
+butter? And now she was thinking of the professor, or at any rate the
+professor was thinking of her. That was Lady Maud's account, and there
+was certainly a suspicion of consciousness when the learned man's name
+was mentioned; a palpable flush indeed, when a faint whistle overbore
+that of the wind, and she started from her chair.
+
+"Rick! it can't surely be Mr. Endorwick!"
+
+The blush made her look years younger, and Will Lockhart felt
+distinctly aggrieved at the fact.
+
+"By George, it is, though," replied her nephew, after a glance through
+the field-glasses which hung ready for the purpose on the window-knob.
+"There he is on the other side of the stream. He has hoisted the flag,
+and is blowing away at the whistle like fits. His umbrella's inside
+out, and his mackintosh floating on the breeze. Do look, Aunt Will.
+It's awfully comic."
+
+Miss Willina's face was a study of dignity and humour; the first
+prevailed. "Eric! I am surprised at your levity. The poor man will be
+drenched to the skin, and he so delicate; such a distinguished scholar
+too; we could ill afford to lose him."
+
+"Give me the glass," said Will Lockhart grimly. The sight of his
+supposed successor signalling for the impossible gave him a thrill of
+satisfaction; for he, at least, was on the right side of the stream.
+And then to the keen little creature at his side came a mood well
+remembered.
+
+"The born idiot! Any Christian would have stopped at the hotel even if
+he was wanting to come on. A fool for his pains! Ah! what's the use of
+blowing like a hooter with the wind and tide against you? Gracious
+goody! Rick, what's to be done? The gawk can't be left there like a
+windmill."
+
+The comparison was not inapt; for the professor, seeing them,
+doubtless, against the firelight within, was waving his arms
+frantically.
+
+"I'll go down and signal him to that bieldy bit behind the big rock.
+It's out of the wind anyhow, and the tide will be turning before he
+could walk back to shelter. And I'll stop in the boat-house; it will
+comfort him to see me smoking, especially if he has forgotten his
+matches. Besides, I must put new rowlocks to the four-oar. We'll want
+her, and the men too, if any one is to cross the stream tonight."
+
+"That's a nice boy," said Will Lockhart, putting down the glasses as
+Rick's figure on its way to the boat-house blocked out the professor's
+increasing despair. "Just about the age I was when--" He paused and
+looked at his companion.
+
+"Yes! You were twenty-one, and I was eighteen."
+
+They were standing close together, the firelight throwing their
+shadows out faintly against the growing darkness, but on their faces
+the dull autumn twilight lingered, blotting out all traces of the
+passage of time.
+
+He came a little nearer to her.
+
+"I wonder why we quarrelled?" he said argumentatively. "I don't mean
+what we quarrelled about. That was never very difficult to find, was
+it? But why did we quarrel finally that last time? I don't recollect
+that you were more wilful than usual."
+
+"No doubt you were more aggravating," she retorted quickly. "Do you
+wish to begin it all over again? I will if you've a mind to."
+
+"Begin what?"
+
+"The quarrel, of course."
+
+"No, thank you. There's the professor hauling down his flag; he has
+seen Rick, and acknowledged his defeat. Good man! Don't you think,
+Miss Macdonald, that it would be more comfortable by the fire than
+here at the window?"
+
+"More comfortable than the professor is, poor man. That is what you
+mean. How selfish all you men are, and then you expect me not to see
+through you!"
+
+"I don't think I ever was quite so _exigeant_ as that, was I? And, do
+you know, I rather wish you would just cast your eye over my innermost
+thoughts at the present moment. It would save me beating about the
+bush."
+
+Perhaps, despite her outward calm, she was a little excited; for she
+had taken up her knitting, half mechanically, and now the needles
+clashed fast and furious. He was leaning towards her, his elbows on
+his knees, his hands loosely clasped together, and something of his
+youth, not so much in its romance as in its imperious desire to know
+and understand, was in his face.
+
+"Miss Macdonald, I've no right to ask, but are you going to
+marry--that man on the other side?"
+
+She gave a little conscious laugh, half-nervous, half-gratified. "That
+is what you call beating about the bush, I suppose? Why--why should I
+marry anybody?"
+
+For the life of him he could not tell, save that in a vague way that
+dead past seemed so pitiful: because it was dead and past. "Why did we
+quarrel?" he repeated. "If the _Clansman_ hadn't come in unexpectedly
+that evening after her time, and so given me an opportunity of going
+off in the sulks, we should have made it up as usual. It seems such a
+little thing to come between us."
+
+She laid down her knitting and looked at him thoughtfully. A woman
+less truthful than Miss Willina might have allowed the inevitable
+satisfaction of being remembered to give an extra tinge of regret and
+romance to that past, which in sober fact had had little of either;
+but Miss Willina's sense of humour was of the rare kind which is not
+blunted by egotism.
+
+"Ridiculously little. In the novels--I read dozens of them in the
+winter--it is always something pathetic. A letter left in a blotting
+book, or a wrong initial on the envelope, or a false announcement of
+marriage. Something not to be foreseen or helped. Or if it isn't the
+fault of fate, they get brain fever and forget their own names. But
+we! We just quarrelled, and didn't care to make it up. It isn't in the
+least romantic, I'm afraid."
+
+"But we didn't forget," he said in the same argumentative tone. "At
+least I didn't."
+
+"Of course not. Does any one ever forget,--absolutely?" Her voice
+trembled slightly. The pathos of memory was not to be ignored
+entirely.
+
+"It seems such a pity--you and I leading such lonely lives."
+
+"Lonely? You should see my Noah's Ark."
+
+"Well! Don't scoff at me. I suppose it is absurd, but to-night
+somehow--"
+
+She interrupted him with a soft hand laid on his. "Don't, please
+don't. It is like children trying to pretend that their shadows on the
+wall are alive. But they are shadows; nothing but shadows, and the
+light which throws them--" she pointed to the window with a laugh that
+was half a sob. "Poor man! he ought to be extinguished by this time."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," he replied sadly, still holding her hand;
+"but it seems hard--the shadows were so pretty."
+
+"Not so pretty as the reality."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"That we have met and forgiven each other--without payment."
+
+"Aunt Will," shouted Rick, bursting into the room, "there's the
+professor in the front hall dripping like a drowned rat. I got the men
+and ferried him over on the first chance; now they are waiting for Mr.
+Lockhart."
+
+Miss Willina was on her feet in a moment. "Take him upstairs, Rick,
+and put him to bed--between the blankets. I'll come directly with
+gruel and mustard. And, Rick! give him a good scrub--all over--with
+the roughest--bath towel--you can find."
+
+The last directions were called up the stairs as she went into the
+hall to see Will Lockhart put on his mackintosh properly.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Macdonald. I'm not in the least envious of the
+professor's immediate future," he said with smiling eyes, but with
+vague regrets still at his heart. "I'm glad, though, he was at the
+other side of the stream to-night. I liked the shadows."
+
+"And the reality?" she asked quickly.
+
+He stooped and kissed the pretty little hand browned by sun and wind.
+"It is like the breath of your sea. The memory of it will help to blow
+away the cobwebs until I come back--in the summer."
+
+"The summer is over."
+
+"Not St. Martin's, and one often has a spell of fine weather late in
+the year when the earlier portions have been stormy."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+
+
+
+                                  V
+
+
+"Well, Hooper, what is it?"
+
+Lady Maud stood at bay once more, with that diffident-looking man at
+the door. Three weeks had passed since his first interview; only three
+weeks, and it seemed to her an eternity of fear and anxiety. But now
+the letters written in reply to hers had come from the American
+doctor, and she knew the worst. Mr. Wilson's case had at once been
+easy and difficult. Easy because of his singular lack of will power;
+difficult for the same reason, joined to a very bad ancestral record.
+So bad that his maternal uncle, from whom he had inherited his large
+fortune, being deeply resentful of the treatment his sister had
+endured from her drunken husband, had burdened his legacy with certain
+unusual conditions as to sobriety and control. Consequently, when,
+shortly after his release from the restraints of minority, the
+inherited tendency had shown itself in Mr. Wilson, he had voluntarily
+placed himself in Dr. Haddon's charge, urged to the step by his fear
+of pecuniary loss. That was, briefly, the whole story, save that he,
+Dr. Haddon, continued to have charge of the case and would be obliged
+if Lady Maud would co-operate with him in continuing a system which
+had hitherto been so successful, and which, he did not scruple to add,
+was Mr. Wilson's only chance of fulfilling the conditions under which
+he held his fortune. For himself, he believed there was no danger of a
+relapse; it might even be possible after some years to relax the
+supervision, and in any case he begged her to remember that the
+hereditary tendency must needs be weakened by a generation even of
+enforced sobriety. He had hoped that there might be no necessity for
+her to be made acquainted with these circumstances, as the whole
+affair had been dealt with in the strictest confidence, and the
+essence of his treatment lay in ignoring the difficulty; but now that
+the untoward event reported by Hooper had occurred, it was better she
+should clearly understand the position of affairs. Briefly, he was
+paid for keeping Mr. Wilson from losing a very large portion of his
+wealth. Apart from that, it was an interesting case. In regard to
+Hooper, he was thoroughly trustworthy and conscientious,--a most
+necessary thing when influence was easy to attain. At the same time,
+if Hooper failed to commend himself to Lady Maud, he could be
+replaced. In view of the heavy stake at issue, however, he would
+recommend extreme caution in making any change. As for his reasons for
+allowing Mr. Wilson to marry under the circumstances, they were
+manifold; and his belief in the system was so great that he felt
+confident Lady Maud would never find cause for blame in her husband's
+conduct. The letter, in its bald statement of fact, its assumption of
+a perfectly satisfactory state of affairs, carried with it a sort of
+cold comfort. And yet Lady Maud felt a wild revolt against it such as
+no verdict of disease or death would have aroused.
+
+Like most women who marry men to whom they are indifferent, she had
+looked forward, odd as it may seem, to having children who would give
+a zest to an otherwise insipid life. And now the mere possibility was
+a terror: not in pity for those who might come handicapped into the
+race, but from sheer physical horror that they should be his and hers.
+And this terror came uppermost in the first few minutes of shock.
+
+"I have heard from Dr. Haddon this morning, my lady. In future I am to
+take my orders from you; so I have come to ask for them."
+
+The disapproval in his tone was audible. She felt a rash, resentful
+desire to bid him go and leave her free, but the doctor's warning
+checked the words. What if she should have burdened her life for
+nothing,--she who had refused money again and again because it seemed
+vulgar to her fastidiousness? She might appeal to her husband as a
+man, chance her influence against the Hooper-Haddon system; but what
+if she failed? During those last three weeks she had silenced the
+heart which, despite all her efforts, would have its way, by
+protestations that she was only awaiting the doctor's reply, that by
+and by she would no longer consent to be this man's wife on these
+terms. To live on as if she knew nothing; to give neither help nor
+condemnation; to acquiesce without a word in a future which filled her
+with shame and horror.
+
+When she knew the facts, she would decide, and now she knew too much.
+
+"I have no orders," she said in a low voice; "no new ones; you can
+go." Then suddenly a thought flashed through her and she arrested him
+with a gesture.
+
+"Yes, my lady?"
+
+Still she was silent, one hand gripping the edge of the table, her
+breath coming fast. "I do not think--this place--is good for Mr.
+Wilson."
+
+"Indeed, your ladyship," broke in Hooper, relieved, "I have thought so
+myself,--the--the irregular habits in regard to spirits are trying."
+
+"I think he would be better away."
+
+"Exactly so, my lady; only I did not like--all the arrangements being,
+as it were, settled."
+
+Her voice had gained in steadiness by this time. "There need be no
+alteration. I should remain here, of course." She paused, and Hooper
+shifted uneasily. "Mr. Wilson had an invitation to Perthshire
+yesterday. I should _like_ him to accept it. Do you understand?"
+
+"But indeed, my lady, I cannot. To begin with, I am not allowed by Dr.
+Haddon--"
+
+She stopped him angrily. "If you cannot obey me, there are others--so
+Dr. Haddon says. I consider this place is bad for Mr. Wilson, and it
+is my wish he should leave it. Do you hear?"
+
+For the life of her, try after calmness as she would, entreaty and
+despair made her command falter. He must go--if only to give her time
+to think; time to settle what course she would choose.
+
+"If your ladyship takes the responsibility--in regard to Dr. Haddon, I
+mean."
+
+"I take it all--the responsibility for everything."
+
+"Then I will suggest it. I may not succeed; but I will do my best, and
+if I fail, your ladyship must remember that I was not engaged for such
+work."
+
+The grotesqueness of it all struck her sense of humour despite the
+turmoil of emotion in which she found herself.
+
+"Yes, yes!" she said impatiently; "I will remember it was not your
+place!"
+
+When he had gone, she stood for some time without moving, her hand
+still grasping the table, body and mind alike in a state of tension.
+Then her nerves seemed to slacken, the spirit to leave her. She walked
+listlessly towards the fire, and, leaning her arms on the mantelpiece,
+rested her head upon them. So standing, the little curls about her
+temples outlined themselves against the ugliness of Rick Halmar's
+devil.
+
+"It is not all my fault," she muttered with a sort of sob; "not all my
+fault, surely. I must have time. I must have time."
+
+The rest of the day was torture to her. She did not regret the sudden
+impulse which had decreed her husband's exile, if it could be managed,
+yet she dreaded to have him say the words which would proclaim the
+success of her treachery against him. He came over once to where she
+sate in the twilight pretending to read, and laid his hand
+affectionately on her shoulder. It was only some trivial remark he had
+to make, but she started so visibly that Eustace, watching her, as he
+had watched her every mood during those weeks, came to her afterwards
+with a frown.
+
+"What is the matter, Maud? Why should you keep me at arm's length?
+Surely I know too much for that already."
+
+"What do you know?" she asked with the recklessness which of late had
+crept into her manner.
+
+"I know you are unhappy. Do you remember what I told you that night?
+You shall not suffer."
+
+Her lips trembled, and she turned from him hastily to join a group
+gathered round the professor. He had come back from Eval House greatly
+depressed in spirits, and with a running cold in his head, which
+Cynthia Strong was treating with pulsatilla, as yet rather
+unsuccessfully; but it required time, she explained, when the first
+stages had been badly managed on the old methods. The group was
+engaged in examining the famous Rhine ring, with which gift,
+apparently, Miss Willina had tried to content the learned man; but
+even its possession failed to comfort him.
+
+"I have deciphered the inscription," he said gloomily. "It is,
+briefly, 'Order, Truth, Honesty.' The last word bears many side
+meanings, and perhaps Purity would be a better translation. All the
+terminations being feminine, it may be inferred that the ring was worn
+by a woman; possibly one of unusual worth. It may even have been a
+badge of virtue; a tribute paid by the community to merit, or by the
+lover to his beloved."
+
+If he had said a funeral memento to the dead, his voice could not have
+been more lugubrious.
+
+"How interesting!" murmured Cynthia Strong. "Even in those days the
+mental qualities were deemed superior to mere physical attractions."
+
+"I beg your pardon," retorted the professor quite tartly. "Order, as
+used here, means complete, perfect; according to our modern speech,
+beautiful. Truth has also a secondary meaning. A free, but at the same
+time accurate, translation would be 'Beautiful, constant, chaste.'"
+
+Rick Halmar was twisting the ring about in his strong deft hands. "I
+expect some beggar gave it to his wife," he said cheerfully. "It must
+have been just as jolly then as now to have somebody to stick by you
+through thick and thin. To have the dinner ready, and not swear if you
+hadn't done what you ought to have done. Not brought in enough fish
+for the kids, for instance; though how they ever caught any with those
+bone hooks, I can't think. I couldn't."
+
+"You must remember the great incentive of hunger," remarked the
+professor in the same tone. "Besides, in those days dexterity in the
+chase was the master key to a woman's affections."
+
+"I say, Weeks, old man! why weren't you born then?" cried Rick,
+happily unconscious of all complications.
+
+"Never had any luck," muttered the other, "except with the birds."
+
+"Luck! I like that! You call it luck when you never miss; I assure
+you, Miss Strong," he continued, going up to where the despondent
+captain was standing, and addressing the nearest lady, "I was out with
+him yesterday, and he made me feel such a duffer. The prettiest
+shooting, and then he calls it luck!"
+
+Cynthia Strong looked from one to the other of those two vigorous
+young faces before her, and then at the professor's pale one. A cold
+in the head is not becoming, and she sighed.
+
+Rick, with the ring still in his possession, returned to Lady Maud.
+
+"Isn't it quaint?" he said. "Don't you wish I could find another?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it would be yours, of course. How small it looks! I wonder if
+it would fit you."
+
+"Miss Macdonald found it too large for her," remarked the professor,
+still more gloomily; "but it would be interesting, Lady Maud, to try
+whether it points to any improvement or deterioration--physical, of
+course--in the race."
+
+"Perhaps you ladies would not mind experimenting 'Cinderella and the
+little glass slipper,'" laughed Eustace Gordon. "What is to be the
+prize, Endorwick--the ring?"
+
+"My dear sir," gasped the professor, horrified for once out of his
+gallantry, "it's unique--positively unique."
+
+"I'll tell you what," put in Rick eagerly, "if the professor will lend
+it to me for a couple of days, I'll copy it in silver. A florin would
+make it, and the inscriptions only scratched on. So now, then, ladies,
+if you please. Weeks, you do herald. Lady Maud, may we use the banner
+screen as a tabard?"
+
+"What a boy that is!" said fat Lady Liddell to her next-door
+neighbour. "I've been here a fortnight, and never saw him out of
+temper or out of spirits. So different from most young people
+nowadays, who won't take the trouble to enjoy themselves."
+
+"I knew it wouldn't go on anybody's finger but yours," said Rick with
+joyous confidence to his goddess when the competition was over.
+"Perhaps it wasn't quite fair, because I'd seen Aunt Will try it on so
+often, and her hands are tiny."
+
+Lady Maud shook her head gravely. "I'm afraid it wasn't quite fair;
+but you must make me the ring, for all that."
+
+"Of course I'll make it!"
+
+She put her hand on his suddenly. "Don't, Rick! don't! I mean"--she
+paused, looking at him curiously--"you may make it if you like, Rick;
+but I won't promise to wear it--always."
+
+
+
+
+                                  VI
+
+
+"We ought to have gone over to-day," said Eustace Gordon, looking out
+to where the low sandy line of Eilean-a-fa-ash lay like a golden clasp
+between the two headlands. The northern one bold, rocky, heathery; the
+southern, a mere spit of bent-covered shingle, curving hornlike from
+the great sweep of the Grada Sands beyond. It was sunset,--a cloudless
+sunset. Sky, and sea, and sand, bathed in a golden flood of light;
+only the shallow stretches of water left behind by the retreating tide
+glowing iridescent here and there like jewels. Far away, almost beyond
+sight, an edge of foam keeping time to a whispering cadence told where
+the Atlantic was hushing the shore to sleep.
+
+"Yes!" he went on lazily. "We ought, but we didn't. That fellow Weeks
+is always on the slay."
+
+They were seated, a party of five,--for the professor still lingered
+in the grip of cold,--on the base of the northern headland. There,
+amongst the rocks and heather, Lady Maud and Cynthia Strong had been
+making tea for the shooters. A brace of setters lay panting beside the
+game-bags; a faint whiff of smoke from behind a boulder told that the
+ghillies were enjoying themselves on their master's tobacco--sure sign
+of a good day's sport.
+
+"Gorgeous weather," continued the same contented voice, "a whole week
+of it; simply idyllic."
+
+"Ever since Mr. Wilson and the others left," assented Rick Halmar.
+"Pity they went, isn't it?"
+
+"Mr. Wilson had to go," put in Lady Maud. "The telegram from the works
+was urgent, and then the Collinghams' yacht happening to come in the
+same day made it so convenient. Quite a coincidence; one of those
+things no one could have foreseen." She spoke impatiently, almost in
+an aggrieved tone; and Eustace, as he lay on his back staring up into
+the sky, smiled to himself.
+
+"It is very curious how such things happen," remarked Cynthia Strong;
+"but that they are comparatively common is indubitable. The very
+proverbs in our language prove it." In the professor's absence she was
+apt to assume the mantle of his manner in order to annihilate poor
+Captain Weeks, in which object she generally succeeded. On this
+occasion, however, emboldened by a recent reception of some golden
+plovers' wings, for which her new tweed hat had been waiting, he
+ventured to put in his oar. "The wish is father to the thought, for
+instance."
+
+"Nothing of the kind--" began Miss Strong scornfully; but Lady Maud
+rose hastily and, standing a little apart, looked at Eilean-a-fa-ash,
+her hand shading her eyes.
+
+"Let us settle to go there to-morrow without fail," she said as if to
+change the subject.
+
+"Not to-morrow, please," broke in Rick eagerly. "To-morrow is Fast
+Day, and none of the ghillies will do a hand's turn. Besides, I have
+to drive Aunt Will to the preaching, as uncle won't. Put it off till
+the next day, Lady Maud. To begin with, it's my birthday, and then the
+tides are full spring. So we could come back by the sea ford. It is
+worth doing; nearly two miles with quicksands on either side,
+especially to the south."
+
+"Very well, the day after to-morrow; that is, Friday certain; or some
+other coincidence will be carrying off the rest of my party." Still
+with her hand shading her eyes, she remained looking seawards, much in
+the same attitude as she had stood at the window a month before. This
+time her slight figure showed against the gold of sea and sky.
+
+"What is that," she asked, "like a mast--yonder and from the
+headland?"
+
+Rick, busy as usual with his knife, did not pause to look. "It _is_ a
+mast, Lady Maud. There is a wreck just to the south. Went ashore ever
+so long ago, but it is useful still as a sign-post. Up to that spar
+the sand is pretty safe--most times. Beyond that--by George! you
+should see it when the tide is coming in."
+
+"Oh! I don't mean the spar close in--yonder, far away."
+
+He came and stood by her. "A yacht, I think, making, I should say, for
+Carbost. Come to carry some of us away, maybe."
+
+"If it's for me," remarked Eustace, joining them, "I don't intend to
+go. This is too good a time to be cut short. I haven't had such a good
+one since those old days at Lynmouth, Maud! And you too! Why, you are
+looking twice as well as you did--a week ago." There was meaning in
+his words; more in his eyes.
+
+"Fine weather always agrees with me," she replied hastily. "Come,
+Rick, let us pick up the tea things and start home."
+
+Yet in her heart of hearts she knew that Eustace was right. That past
+week had been a paradise of relief, and now it came perilously near to
+the time when the problem of her life must be faced. She had driven
+round it so far, had turned back deliberately when she found it
+barring the road, had claimed time to understand the position. What
+had she done towards a decision? Nothing! Nothing save bask in the
+immediate freedom; rejoice like any child in the fine weather, in
+Rick's open adoration, in her cousin's constant companionship.
+
+As she and the boy walked homewards together, these thoughts came
+again and again, whilst her nervous fingers busied themselves
+mechanically with the silver ring which he had made for her; a growing
+habit of which she was not aware.
+
+"Does it hurt you?" he asked tenderly. "I can easily alter it, if it
+does."
+
+She shook her head with a faint smile.
+
+"But I have seen you do that so often lately," he persisted; "perhaps
+the inside is not quite smooth. Give it me, please, and I will set it
+right by Friday."
+
+"Don't trouble. If it hurts, I can always take it off; can't I, dear?"
+There was a sudden passion in her tone, a kind of pitiful reproach in
+her eyes. Rick looked at her, perturbed.
+
+"But if it hurts--" he began.
+
+She put out her pretty hand and laid it on his, almost with a
+protecting gesture. "Nothing you could do would hurt me, Rick. You
+said so the first time we met, and it is true. If it hurts, it is my
+own fault."
+
+"That doesn't make any difference," he replied stoutly. "Let me have
+it, please."
+
+"Not to-day--on Friday, perhaps; _if it hurts_."
+
+They were standing where the cross-path branched to Eval, waiting for
+the others to come up; for Rick's way lay across the moor and she
+would be left alone.
+
+"I believe it does hurt now," he said, still dissatisfied, "and I know
+I could set it right. Do let me try."
+
+"How serious you are!" she cried with a sudden change of mood. "See! I
+promise to give it back on Friday if it hurts. It shall be my birthday
+present. There!"
+
+"All right. I'll keep it for yours; then we shall be quits," he said,
+laughing.
+
+When he had left them, Eustace took his place, and Cynthia Strong and
+Captain Weeks were certainly the happier for the change. Lady Maud,
+likewise, to judge by her light laughter.
+
+Fast Day rose brilliantly. The clear, crisp sunshine poured in through
+the dining-room windows, when, coming down to breakfast, she found her
+cousin there, alone.
+
+"Another lovely day," she said gaily.
+
+"The last for me," he replied. "That was the yacht yesterday. It has
+anchored below the sands, and the captain has strict orders from
+Louisa to bring me off dead or alive to-night." He laughed, but there
+was a bitter look on his face as he tossed a crumpled letter towards
+her. "Catch! that's my warrant of execution."
+
+Not a very nice letter, but a reasonable one in its way. The weather
+was to blame, of course; still, she had asked him to join her many
+times and he had not joined her. He had been a month and more at
+Roederay and now the equinoctial gales were over, she meant to be off
+southwards. If he could not make use of the yacht, he must send it
+round to Cowes and make his own arrangements. For her part, she
+intended to start for the Mediterranean in ten days. Not the sort of
+letter to be disregarded by a husband dependent on the writer for all
+save a very moderate settlement.
+
+"I've told them to have the boat ready at the Grada point at five this
+afternoon to take me on board. Perhaps it is better so. This sort of
+thing couldn't have gone on much longer."
+
+She was silent, and the professor, bursting in, ended the tete-a-tete.
+
+"What a land, or perhaps I should say sea, of surprises this is, to be
+sure!" he exclaimed. "The _Clansman_, I am informed by the factor,
+whom I met on his way to preaching, will anticipate her time by three
+whole days, owing to this Fast and some local market. She takes
+Carbost on the out instead of the in trip, and is due to-night, some
+time between seven and two in the morning. So I am afraid, my dear
+lady, that my delightful visit must come to a somewhat abrupt
+conclusion. I propose, therefore, going over--"
+
+"To Eval House," suggested Eustace.
+
+"No-o. To the hotel at dusk, so as to be on the spot."
+
+Lady Maud paled visibly. "And Cynthia! of course she and Captain Weeks
+will go too. Ah! what a sudden breakup of our pleasant party!"
+
+"You had better come with us, dear lady, and so reduce our regrets to
+a minimum," cried the professor gallantly.
+
+But the compliment fell flat. That was the fate of most remarks during
+breakfast, so that conversation dwindled to excerpts from Bradshaw's
+guide. Captain Weeks, who was generally a stand-by of placid good
+nature, was peculiarly low. He had made up his mind, come what might,
+to try his fate with Cynthia Strong before leaving, and now, though
+still determined, he felt hustled. She, in her turn, knew she had
+shilly-shallied in a way unworthy of a Girton girl until her
+opportunities of bringing the professor to book had dwindled to three
+days; two of them to be spent at sea, where she could not be sure of
+herself or him. As for Eustace and Maud, their role in the comedy of
+Life had been touched with tragedy for some time past. They felt dimly
+that the crisis had come.
+
+"We have never been to Eilean-a-fa-ash, after all," said Cynthia,
+pausing at the window on her way to pack, and looking regretfully to
+where the island lay out in the blue sea.
+
+"I thought we shouldn't," murmured Lady Maud in a low voice; "the
+Island of Rest is not for us."
+
+"It has been within reach all the time. It is so still," replied
+Eustace in the same tone.
+
+"We might have gone this morning if it hadn't been Fast Day,"
+continued Cynthia, aggrieved. "Couldn't we bribe somebody? I want to
+go awfully, and so does the professor."
+
+"My failure to do so will be the only regret which can possibly mingle
+with my memories of Roederay."
+
+"Can't think why you all want to see it," remarked the captain,
+frowning at the professor's complimentary bows. "I went over one
+day--yes, I did, Miss Strong--to shoot seals. Didn't get any--worse
+luck! But it wasn't a bit pretty. Sand and bones and a stone coffin or
+two. The ghillie told me, too, that sometimes, after a north wind, it
+was awfully grim. The sand blows off, don't you know, and leaves
+skeletons and things. Not at all the place for ladies, don't you
+know."
+
+"I'm sorry to be obliged to differ," retorted Cynthia sharply. "In my
+opinion, there are no places where a woman should not be."
+
+"Nihil continget quod non ornavit," paraphrased the professor.
+
+The captain's head held itself very high. "Perhaps I am wrong, but I
+don't think so. However, as you wish to see it, Miss Strong, I shall
+be delighted to row you over in the small boat. Only we must start at
+slack tide; that is, about three in the afternoon."
+
+"Too late, I'm afraid," replied the young lady disconsolately. "We
+ought to be starting for the hotel before six; oughtn't we, Maud?"
+
+"Oh, we could manage it," he went on, seeing in this plan the chance
+of the tete-a-tete on which his mind was set. "If the wagonette were
+to pick us up at the cross-roads, we should have heaps of time. It
+would only be starting two hours earlier,--before the others, I mean."
+
+"What do you say, professor?" asked Cynthia sweetly.
+
+Arthur Weeks ground his teeth, and turned away with a murmur about the
+boat being heavy.
+
+"But the professor will row, of course. Every one rows at Oxford.
+Indeed, I, for one, think the Oxford style is the best in the world."
+
+"Then perhaps you will not require my aid. I only learnt off the coast
+of Cornwall."
+
+Cynthia looked at her usually docile adorer in amaze; she did not
+understand that the big man had for once thought it worth while to
+make up his mind. "But we couldn't go without you," she pleaded quite
+meekly. "You see, you have been there before. Ah, no! we couldn't go
+without you."
+
+"If I can be of any use--" said the captain magnificently, and the
+sight of his aggrieved but courteous dignity gave Cynthia quite a
+pang.
+
+So it was arranged that, about slack tide, he and the professor should
+row to Eilean-a-fa-ash from the boat-house on the north headland, and
+afterwards, taking advantage of the full tide and southerly current,
+slip down the coast across the sands to meet the wagonette. Eustace
+and Maud proposed to start about the same time for Eval House, so that
+he might say good-bye to Miss Willina before joining the yacht's boat
+at Grada point, whence the carriage, on its return journey, would take
+Lady Maud back to Roederay.
+
+A sombre silence had lain between these two all day, and even when
+they were left alone on the terrace watching the others disappear
+shorewards, they said nothing for a time. A great stillness seemed to
+be in the very air. Not a breath on the water, not a sound on the
+moor, not a cloud on the sky. The very house seemed asleep; most of
+the servants away for edification or amusement at the preaching, miles
+to the south, amongst the peat bogs and heather, singing psalms and
+eating peppermint drops, praising the Creator and flirting with the
+creature.
+
+The silence must have reminded Eustace of this fact, for at last he
+turned to his companion hastily. "They won't be at Eval, so there is
+no use going. Come, Maud! It is the last time we shall be together, I
+suppose. Come."
+
+It was not much to grant, she thought, when she might never see him
+again. So they went out together over the moors, down by the little
+pools where the water showed their shadows, blended one into the
+other, upon the cairns where they sate together, looking out over the
+sea. Together, always together, Eustace and she, as it had been at the
+beginning. And this was the end, the very end.
+
+Meanwhile the trio in the boat set forth gaily; the professor very
+straight in the back, and with no little style giving the stroke,
+whilst Arthur Weeks, gloomily polite, paddled in the bows, debarred
+from even a fair sight of his beloved. The full flood-tide lapped at
+the furthermost scallop of seaweed on the shingly shore, and touched
+the sea-pinks cresting the rocks.
+
+"Couldn't you pull a leetle harder?" suggested the captain drily, when
+the professor paused in a long sentence to take breath. "I don't want
+to hustle anybody, but we have only just got time to manage it. We are
+making a good deal of leeway, and the channel north is a bit
+dangerous."
+
+Cynthia glanced nervously towards the Pole. "Oh, yes! please, Mr.
+Endorwick, pull harder. We can talk when we get to the island."
+
+Easier said than done. The perspiration poured down the professor's
+face, and bow kept her head straight as a die; yet still the boat
+failed to respond.
+
+As they crept along slowly, the channel between the headlands and the
+island began to open up, showing the still, oily water which tells of
+swift current.
+
+"We are too far north," said the captain, resting on his oar a moment.
+"The tide can't have been quite slack when we started. However, it
+doesn't matter; for the current here will take us south in no time."
+
+The professor pausing too, they drifted idly.
+
+"That's the landing-place, Miss Strong," went on the speaker. "Yonder,
+where the bents almost touch the water, and that square thing behind
+is a stone cof--" he paused abruptly. "Why, what the devil! we're
+drifting north--due north. By George, we are, though."
+
+In good sooth they were--drifting north like a feather.
+
+"North! impossible--the current runs south at flood. Stay--by Heaven,
+I remember--Ronald said something about a change at the equinox.
+Quick, man alive. Pull, pull hard! Once she gets beyond those rocks,
+we will have the dickens and all to keep her out of the eddy. It runs
+like a race--higher up--amongst sunken--rocks."
+
+The last words came in jerks as he set all his strength to the oar.
+The boat spun round with the point of the professor's oar as axis;
+spun round, drifting as it span.
+
+"Damn it all!" shouted the man of war busy on the rowlocks. "I beg
+your pardon, Miss Strong. Here, man, quick, give me the oar--go
+forward--lie down in the bows and keep her keel stiff. Now then,
+Cynthia, don't scream, there's a good girl--there's no danger as yet.
+Lie down too--then you won't see anything."
+
+She did lie down ignominiously. Right down at his feet, feeling
+that she would be content to enter Paradise clinging to this man's
+coat-tails if only that entry was not premature. The whole world, to
+her, lay in the strength of those arms, and when, meeting her piteous
+eyes, his face relaxed to something like a smile, and he gasped, "All
+right--getting along--nicely," she felt once, and for all, that she
+loved his little finger better than the whole of that abject figure in
+the bows.
+
+So she crouched, lost in a sort of terrified reliance on him, till
+with a queer little sound, half sob, half laugh, he slackened, and
+without a pause proceeded to retransfer a pair of rowlocks to the
+bows.
+
+"Now then--professor--if you please--sorry to have--been so
+abrupt--but--one manages better sculling--when there's no rudder." The
+breaks were caused by his being out of breath. Otherwise he was full
+of dignity, and Cynthia Strong broke down suddenly into subdued tears.
+
+"You had better lie still," he said. "See--here's my coat." He fumbled
+it into a pillow with his left hand, as he went on rowing with his
+right. "Raise your head, please, so;" and, as he bent over her, he
+whispered, "Don't cry, dear, it's all over now."
+
+What Cynthia Strong did to the hand so near her lips is a dead secret
+between those two. The captain's fine flush was doubtless due to his
+previous exertions, but why a pillow should have caused a rush of
+blood to Cynthia's terror-blanched face, remains a mystery.
+
+"Don't work so hard, professor!" cried the former gaily. "You
+are pulling me round, and we have to get our head towards home.
+Eilean-a-fa-ash is out of the question; besides, Miss Strong will be
+all the better for a cup of tea. This sort of thing isn't fit for
+women."
+
+And nobody denied it.
+
+
+
+
+                                 VII
+
+
+A man and a woman looking seawards from Grada point. To the north, the
+long curve of sands hidden by the flood-tide. A curve ending in the
+low line of Eilean-a-fa-ash, which, viewed from here, seemed as if it
+were joined to the mainland. Beyond, the northern headland, whence
+Roederay Lodge stood out against the sky. To the south, a coast broken
+into little points and bays, with the slender masts of a yacht
+standing above a near promontory.
+
+To the west, a spit of rocks running out into the Atlantic, which once
+more lay like a golden garment stretching far as the eye could reach
+on either hand. At their feet, a little boat swaying gently against a
+bare ledge of rock; for the tide was at the full.
+
+"Do come," said the man; "you haven't really seen the yacht, and we
+can't possibly miss the returning wagonette. I'll send a man to watch,
+if you like; then there can be no mistake."
+
+He did not look at her, but his voice was instinct with passionate
+entreaty.
+
+"But the men may not be here till late." Lady Maud did not look at him
+either, yet the same repressed emotion rang in her tone.
+
+"I can row you. We have only to paddle round those rocks, and the
+current will take us right on to the yacht."
+
+"But the men?"
+
+"Lazy beggars! let them swim. Besides, they should have been here long
+ago; it is past five."
+
+"Half-past. They have been here and put the stores in the boat."
+
+"It is we who are late."
+
+He moved a step closer, impatiently. "What have the men to do with it,
+Maud? Don't--don't be childish! What are you afraid of--not of me,
+surely?"
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"I am afraid of nothing," she said lightly. "Come, it will be pleasant
+out on that sunny sea at any rate."
+
+He steadied the boat for her, and she stepped in.
+
+"Where to?" he asked, half in jest, when a stroke or two had taken
+them from the shadow of the rock into the glitter of the sinking sun,
+where they lay bathed in light, the water dripping from the lifted
+oars like drops of molten gold. "Why shouldn't we leave everything
+behind and set sail for nowhere--anywhere?"
+
+With his arms resting on the oars, he leant forwards, fixing his dark
+eyes on her face. They were full of pity and a great tenderness.
+
+"You look so nice there, Maud. Take off your hat, dear, and let the
+sun shine on your hair as it used to do when you were a girl. If I had
+my will, Maud, you should always be in the sunlight; you know that,
+don't you?"
+
+The oars fell into the water softly as he rowed on, whilst she sate
+silent, trailing one hand in the water and watching the great big
+medusae come pulsating past.
+
+"How pleasant it must be to drift--like that!" she said half to
+herself, and once again the drip, drip, drip, of those golden tears
+filled up the silence as the boat swayed idly on the breathing of the
+sea.
+
+"Why shouldn't we drift? There is plenty of time, and God knows ties
+enough, as a rule. Grapnels fore and aft and a mud bank under all to
+stick upon."
+
+"Don't talk of that now, Eustace," she broke in hurriedly. "Let
+us forget it for this last half hour. Isn't it enough to be
+here--together?"
+
+"Enough for now--" he replied unsteadily; "but for afterwards?"
+
+"There may be no afterwards."
+
+He shook his head. "A man never thinks of that. He can't live on
+moonshine; or sunshine either. He wants something real; and so do you.
+Maud! what will you do when you go back to him?"
+
+She put out her hand in entreaty with a little cry. "Oh, Eustace! can
+you not let me be happy for one short half hour?"
+
+"Happy, when we are going to part? Happy, when I know what your future
+will be? when I know it will be torture to you? Why did you send him
+away if it was not because the strain was too great for you to bear?"
+
+"I--I did not send him away," she faltered.
+
+"Pshaw! Hooper told me about it--the fool was afraid. Then the wire
+came, of course, and there was no need for the other. But you meant
+it, Maud. Ah, my darling! don't think I am blaming you--Blame! How
+could I blame you save for too much patience?
+
+"Maud, let us cut the knot! We have made a mistake, both of us; for
+you are miserable, and I--I will not bear it. Come--the yacht is
+there. Let us go into the sunshine. Come, my darling--see how fate
+points the way. We are drifting, drifting--a little more and the
+current will take us. Why should you go back to the empty house? the
+empty life? Maud! Maud!"
+
+What does a man say to a woman when he has forgotten everything in the
+world save his mad desire to keep her for his own? All that could be
+said, in all its tenderness, its passion, and its selfishness, was
+hers as the boat drifted and drifted.
+
+"I am cold!" she said suddenly, giving a little shudder, yet drawing
+closer to him. "We shall be too late."
+
+"Too late to return," he answered joyously. "Oh, Maud, trust me this
+once--See, the yacht is close." He turned and gave a quick exclamation
+of surprise. Where were they? Not, as he expected, within a stone's
+throw of the coast, drifting surely southwards. Here was nothing save
+sea, and rising slowly from it on all sides a thin mist, golden in the
+sunlight through which, in the far distance, a shadow or two loomed
+faint, unrecognized.
+
+Above them the sky, clear as ever; below them the sea, bright,
+pellucid; but between them a gathering curtain which even as he looked
+faded from gold to white, from white to grey, as the unseen sun sank
+beneath the unseen horizon.
+
+"It is a sea-haugh," he said lightly; "the wind must have changed to
+the north, and the cold condenses the vapour. I have seen them often
+after hot weather. But it is all right. We must be close to the yacht,
+for we were well in the current when I stopped rowing; and it runs
+inshore due south. If I whistle, they must hear and answer."
+
+But none came, and the sound seemed to return resonant from the mist,
+showing that it had not travelled far. So, whistling, shouting, and
+rowing, they spent some time in vain, till fear began to invade her
+courage. What if they had drifted past? What if they were drifting out
+to sea, further and further from safety? He tried to scoff at her
+alarm, though his own anxiety grew fast as the mist settled thicker
+and thicker till he could not see a yard beyond the bows. Suddenly,
+with a grating shock, the boat stopped abruptly, almost throwing them
+into each other's arms. His heart seemed to stop also, as he
+remembered having heard of sunken rocks in mid channel.
+
+"We are aground--stay still, I will see."
+
+He stepped cautiously over the side, one foot into six inches of water
+and a shelving bottom, the other into three. Then on to firm dry warm
+sand. His laugh of relief was genuine.
+
+"The adventure is over, Maud. Come! let me help you out. This must be
+the mainland; but where, I can't say."
+
+A difficult question, indeed, to decide with that grey mist curtain
+closing in and shutting out all, save a patch or two of bent at their
+feet.
+
+"Stay here a bit," he continued, "and I will explore. Take the
+whistle. I won't go beyond its reach or be away long; the road must be
+close by."
+
+It was not, however, and he returned after a time with a clouded face.
+"I don't understand it. The sea seems to surround us except in one
+direction, and that is all sand and bent. I don't remember any such
+point below Grada."
+
+"Perhaps we are above it," suggested his companion.
+
+"Quite impossible. The current runs south; a sort of back eddy from
+the big stream. That is what brings all the drift to Grada Sands. The
+question, however, is what we are to do. Take to the boat again and
+punt along the shore till we find a landmark, I should say. Best not
+to desert our ships."
+
+But this again brought a disappointment, and half an hour's rowing,
+punting, and towing resulted in nothing. By this time it was almost
+dark, the mist gathered denser than ever, and with the approach of
+night the north wind rose steadily.
+
+"The sooner we settle ourselves the better, if we have to camp out,
+and it looks like it," said he at last. "Still, if we light a fire,
+some one may see it. Anyhow, there are stores and a sail in the boat,
+so we shall manage. Cheer up, Maud; imagine we are children again. How
+often haven't we pretended to be cast away on a desert island
+together, and how happy we were!"
+
+True enough; yet as she helped him to gather driftwood for the fire,
+her thoughts were on the difference between those days and these. And
+there was more to them in this mischance than there would have been to
+others. What had she meant to do when she stepped into the boat? She
+could not tell; only this she knew, that fate seemed to have decided
+for her. If the fire brought some one--well and good. If not, why then
+Eustace and she had gone adrift. That question was settled forever.
+
+She sate feeding the fire, whilst he foraged for eatables in the boat,
+and each stick seemed to her another doubt dispelled. How they flamed
+and crackled and sparkled, as driftwood does out of sheer joy in
+burning. Yet no one came--no one.
+
+Later on, with the tenderness which was a fierce delight to her, he
+found her what shelter he could on that bare waste of bent and
+shingle; though it was only a nook, backed on the windy side by a
+rough slab of rock half embedded in the sand. Still it was dry and
+warm, and with the boat's sail wrapped round her, and her feet towards
+a freshly built fire, she could lean back comfortably and defy some of
+the growing cold and rising wind. She sate watching him silently as he
+sate by the fire, turning every now and again to assure himself of her
+comfort or tuck the sail, loosened by the wind, round her more
+closely.
+
+Suddenly, during one of these ministrations, her eye caught the
+sparkle of dewdrops on his coat, and she stretched out her delicate
+hand to touch his sleeve. It was quite wet.
+
+"There is plenty of room for you here, Eustace," she said quietly,
+"and the sail will cover us if we sit close together. I--I must not
+begin by being selfish." Then her calm gave way. "Oh, Eustace!
+Eustace! we must love each other very dearly or I shall die of shame."
+
+Something in the almost despairing surrender to fate roused the best
+part in his nature. He drew her head on to his shoulder and kissed her
+gently.
+
+"Good-night, dear. Go to sleep if you can. I'll watch the fire."
+
+She gave a little shivering sob and clung to him. All was settled now;
+she had taken her life into her own hands; the struggle was over, and
+he was a haven of rest--a haven of rest. Her thoughts went no further
+than that, for she was utterly wearied out; but as he sate beside her,
+his mind went far afield into the afterwards which he had claimed as
+his right; and more than once as she stirred in the uneasy sleep into
+which she had fallen, he bent over her again and kissed her. She was
+his; the past was at an end; scruples must come later if they came at
+all. He had foreseen this ending from the beginning; perhaps he
+had tried to escape from it; perhaps he had not. This much was
+certain,--the stars had fought for him, and she was his. The wind
+swept steadily round them, but, safe sheltered as she was, he
+feared no harm, and when the dawn came their troubles would all be
+over--forever.
+
+So sheltering her, as morning approached he, too, fell into a doze,
+and the fire, deprived of fuel, sank by degrees to a heap of
+smouldering ashes. Then the chill which comes before the day sought
+them out even in each other's arms, and brought to both a vague,
+surprised consciousness of their surroundings. Where were they? What
+had happened? With eyes still full of sleep and dreams, she saw the
+grey mist hanging round them--the ashes of the fire which had burnt so
+bravely last night. Last night! Great God, how came she there?
+
+"Eustace!" she cried, starting up wildly, one hand finding aid from
+the slab of rock behind her. Her pretty hair was damp with dew, her
+face flushed where it had rested on his shoulder.
+
+For answer he caught her to him and covered her face with passionate
+kisses. He, too, was fresh from sleep and dreams,--dreams of the
+hereafter. And now the day had come, and yonder, where the mist showed
+lightest, the sun was rising.
+
+"Oh, no! no!" she panted, struggling to escape.
+
+"Maud!"--his tone was full of surprised reproach as he fell back a
+step,--"what is it? What have I done?"
+
+"What have _I_ done?" she echoed swiftly. "I can't remember! Oh, God!
+what's that?" Her voice rose to a shriek; she clung to him
+convulsively with one hand while her eyes fixed themselves on the
+stone slab which had sheltered her--and him.
+
+The north wind had done work during the night, and the embedded slab
+was clear now; more than clear. It formed part of a stone coffin
+whence the wind had driven the sand, leaving the contents exposed to
+view. Only a few bones, but, backed by the drifted sand, they still
+kept the semblance of a skeleton sitting staring out into the mist.
+
+Eustace Gordon recoiled--the best of men would have done so much in
+such a situation; then memory aided him.
+
+"It is Eilean-a-fa-ash, Maud--Eilean-a-varai--you remember. We must
+have drifted north somehow. Don't look so scared, my darling. It is
+only Eilean-a-fa-ash--the Island of Rest--that is all."
+
+She did not heed him; her eyes, full of an almost insane terror,
+were fastened on the fleshless hand which lay so near--oh! God in
+heaven!--so near her own as it clutched the side of the coffin.
+
+"The ring," she whispered. "Look! look--the ring, my ring, my ring."
+
+Yes! on the dead as on the living hand he saw the ring with its
+legend, "Beautiful, constant, chaste." A chill came over even his
+passion; yet he turned to her with sudden petulance.
+
+"Well! what then?--you know whence it must have come, what it must
+have been from the beginning, I suppose. Come! let us leave these
+horrors, let us leave the past and be sensible. Come, Maud."
+
+She gave him one look,--a look he never forgot,--and with a cry of
+"Rick's ring! Rick's ring!" broke from him and disappeared into the
+mist.
+
+"Maud! Maud! don't be silly! Maud! where are you going? For God's
+sake, Maud! come back. The mist--the sea--are you mad? Maud! Maud!"
+
+Then he, too, was blotted out, and the growing light of day found
+nothing human there save the bones of a woman who had been loved.
+Nothing but that and the ashes of a fire which had gone out.
+
+"Maud! Maud!" The cry hit on the mist and came echoing back to him,
+as, following her faint footsteps, he pursued her. Once looming
+through the fog he thought he saw her pausing as for breath, but his
+passionate entreaty for her to wait for him, his eager reminder that
+he was Eustace--Eustace, her lover--brought no response. Did he
+imagine a faint cry as if she started off in renewed alarm, or was it
+only some sea-bird hidden in the mist, uttering its plaintive note?
+
+He brought himself up suddenly with a gasp of horrid fears as his feet
+gave way beneath him--deeper? deeper? No! that was right: firm ground
+once more, but where was he? Where were those faint footmarks leading
+him?
+
+"Maud! Come back! It is not safe!" Still he went on. Not safe, indeed!
+He floundered desperately for a moment, and then stood with laboured
+breath and a dew of deadly fear on his face, looking round him. The
+sun rising steadily had, by this time, turned the mist into a golden
+haze, through which he could see that a few seaweed-hung boulders had
+been gathered to a heap whence sprang a cross-shaped post. It must be
+a ford--the sea ford to Eilean-a-fa-ash. That way then lay safety, for
+a few hours; but which way had she gone? He stooped to see, with fear
+for her and for himself fighting with his love. Then he stood up, pale
+as death. "Maud! Come back. Maud! I will not hurt you." Surely, surely
+there was an answering cry. The relief seemed to blind him, deafen
+him.
+
+"Here! Here! where are you? It is I!"
+
+The next instant Rick Halmar was beside him, fiercely imperative.
+"Where is she? Where is she?"
+
+Eustace Gordon looked at the eager boyish face stupidly, and faltered,
+"She was afraid--she ran away. I don't know why. Call her. She might
+come to you. Call her."
+
+Those bright blue eyes seemed to pierce him through and through,
+before they sought the ground. There was not much to be seen; only the
+print of a woman's foot in the sand, a foot going south; due south.
+
+"Coward!"
+
+The word rang out clear from the golden mist like a voice from heaven,
+and Eustace Gordon was left standing alone beside the cross pointing
+towards safety. Rick Halmar had gone south; due south.
+
+
+
+
+                                 VIII
+
+
+Then a new cry beat itself upon the curtain of mist: "Lady Maud! Lady
+Maud! it is I--Rick! Rick Halmar." And the boy's voice reached further
+than the man's, as moment by moment the sea-haugh lightened, softened,
+rose, until it seemed no more than a golden halo round the climbing
+sun.
+
+"It is I--Rick! Rick Halmar."
+
+His hands clenched tighter and tighter as he ran. To Eustace the
+danger had been uncertain, unreal, but Rick knew every inch of the
+ground, and knew that each step left hope further behind. Already his
+accustomed ear had caught the curious whispering hush with which the
+land gives way before the sea. And he knew what that meant on Grada
+Sands. Firm foothold for a second and then a shivering and murmuring
+sliding gulf. Oh, horrible, most horrible to think of her.
+
+"Lady Maud! it is I--Rick, only Rick."
+
+The thought came to him suddenly that it was his birthday. She had
+promised to give him something. Ah! fate could not be so cruel on his
+birthday of all days in the year! Foolish irrational thought which
+somehow brought him comfort as his keen eyes sought a sign and found
+nothing but those shining footsteps, whence the water filtered even as
+he sped past them. Thank Heaven for so much! since it showed that the
+tide was still far off; that as yet there was time. Lighter and
+lighter too! Soon he might be able to see her, ghostlike, through the
+mist, or at least judge the distance of that creeping line of foam
+which, still unseen, and still, he hoped fiercely, far, far off, yet
+seemed to occupy his every thought, to fill his memory. Tortuous like
+a snake, with the snake's low hiss as it curled along the quivering
+sand. Suddenly his heart stood still, for there out of the golden mist
+grew the tall black spar of the old wreck with its message of warning:
+"Pretty safe so far, most times; beyond that--" The recollection of
+his own careless words prompted another cry.
+
+"My lady--my dearest lady. It is I, Rick--only Rick."
+
+What was that on the sand--blotting the yellow sand just below the
+spar? A stone? seaweed? No--that was a woman's dress; she was there,
+face downwards on the sand, fallen insensible perhaps--but saved.
+Thank God! saved. He stumbled in his mad haste to reach her. Was it a
+stumble, or had his foot broken through the firmer crust? Again, this
+time both feet. Could he have come so far, so close, only to fail?
+Impossible! Then beneath him he felt a tremor, the first slight tremor
+heralding the dissolution of dry land. With the sudden resolve which,
+in time of danger, separates one man from his fellow, decisively,
+absolutely, to the utter annihilation of all cant about equality, he
+put all his strength into one bold leap forward. The next instant he
+was clinging to the spar like a monkey, or a sailor. The tremor
+passed; the sand settled once more with a low gurgling murmur,
+proclaiming the back draw of the wave still hidden by the haze.
+Cautiously he tried one foot beyond the single plank between him and
+destruction. Hopeless, even if he stood still, and to reach her he
+must take a step or two. Again the tremor came,--the shifting, sliding
+sparkle of the sand-grains as they parted,--and the figure lying with
+its face hidden, resting on the right arm, sank a little. Only a very
+little; yet still it sank. He had come prepared for danger, with a
+rope wound about his waist; and almost with his first foothold on the
+wreck, his hands had been busy with the coil even while his thoughts
+and eyes were elsewhere. A bight here, a bend there, and it was fast
+as sailor's lore could make it, to the spars and to his body. No! not
+there; for it had to be doubled to bear the strain, and he could not
+afford to lose an inch. So, tight over one shoulder with a treble
+twist round his outstretched arm. That would not give way unless it
+tore the arm from its socket; and then the rope, being high up on the
+spar, would give him greater purchase when the time came for strength.
+How long these thoughts, these actions, seemed to take; yet he could
+not spare one of them even though, with a soft, swishing rush, the
+hidden enemy made another sally. This time lingering half a moment
+round that figure on the sand as if to gain a firmer hold upon it.
+Perhaps! but not so firm as his would be. Now he was ready! With a
+swing backwards and forwards to gain additional impetus, the rope
+coiled loosely so as not to drag, he leapt clear of the wreck towards
+her. An instant's doubt, and he had her by the hand, the left hand,
+which lay stretched on the sand as she had fallen. How cold it was!
+Could she be dead? But the horror of the thought was forgotten in
+fight; for now, with the same chuckling sound as if the devils below
+were laughing at him, came the back draw. Not an inch, not a quarter
+to be yielded, come what might. The rope, despite his bitter clench
+upon its strands, cut deep into his arm; it seemed as if a red-hot
+iron pierced his shoulder, as the sinews strained to their uttermost.
+Ah! that was a relief, but her weight was heavier surely, and that
+meant less stable support. Hanging as he was, by one arm,--the other
+outstretched to keep his hold on her,--he could see nothing save the
+unsteady sand closing round him. He seemed to feel nothing save the
+little cold hand in his. It was now or never. Grasping the rope as
+high as he could reach, he put out his whole strength, hoping to move
+her but an inch nearer to him. Hopeless; and the back draw, coming on
+him unawares, found him, as it were, on the rack, and seized its
+opportunity. He set his teeth and endured. How, he never knew, but
+when the agony passed, a dew, like that of death, was on his face, and
+he hung nerveless, helpless, save for the desperate resolve to keep
+his hold--to keep her hand in his. The wave again. Little bubbles this
+time, as if some one was drowning close by. Ah! if he could only see
+her, even though it was to see her gripped in that pulsating horror!
+
+"Maud! it is I--only Rick." The cry came from him as he hung on
+the rack once more. Perhaps, if he could keep his hold, the coming
+tide would slacken that grip--it might--it must. How far had she
+sunk--already? Had the golden head disappeared? Was there nothing
+left save the little cold hand where he could feel the ring--his
+ring--slipping under his clasp? Ah! there was the wave again--surging
+in his ears, whispering, whispering, whispering, surely of some
+far-off country, of a great rest, and peace, and forgetfulness.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+Rick Halmar hung limp upon the rope. Nature had stepped in; her
+patience was exhausted, she would have no more heroism, no more delay.
+Those two hands had held each other long enough. The time had come for
+them to part quietly, peacefully. Not in a moment, but gradually, as
+if even in unconsciousness the spirit strove against the flesh, those
+slender fingers slipped through the strong ones. Slipped and slipped,
+till, with a little jerk, Rick's hand closed upon itself, and fell
+back inert, while the other, still stretched in mute appeal, sank
+slowly into the sand.
+
+The sun, having escaped from its halo, saw the deed done, and smiled
+down upon the sight cheerfully. Only a boy with a birthday present in
+his hand. Only one more woman loved and lost. What was that to weep
+over? A wheeling gull, sweeping by on broad white wings, suggested
+sympathy, but, in reality, it came to see if the deed portended food
+for its young ones. There were no other spectators. Had there been,
+they would have been so occupied by vain attempts to aid, that the
+essence of it all would have escaped them. Such things are better told
+than witnessed.
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+So thought Miss Willina when, three weeks afterwards, Rick, with his
+left arm still in a sling, tried to make her understand it was not his
+fault. He wore the silver ring on his right hand; they had found it
+there tight clasped when, set on the track by Eustace Gordon, they
+came in a boat to the rescue. Just too late to do more than release
+Rick from a torture none the less painful afterwards because it was
+unfelt at the time. Perhaps, with her older eyes, Miss Willina saw
+further into the blame than he did; but she said nothing.
+
+So Rick kept the ring, with its legend "Beautiful, constant, chaste,"
+as his birthday present. He did not even give it to his wife. It
+belonged, he said, to the most perfect woman he had ever seen, and
+when people suggested the propriety of this being a euphonism for the
+one he had chosen as his life-companion, he shook his head with a
+smile.
+
+Nevertheless, Miss Willina was not silent of blame. She poured vials
+of it on her own head for having neglected a clear duty. If she had
+only insisted on the other devil being burnt as well, this terrible
+thing might not have come to pass. Anyhow, she would go over to the
+deserted Lodge without delay, and destroy the wicked idol, lest it
+should do more harm.
+
+"Let me come too," said Rick in a low voice.
+
+This time Miss Willina did not meet his request with the query, "Was
+she so pretty as all that, dear?" Indeed, the memory of those words
+choked her.
+
+So Rick went for the first time into the little sanctum where Lady
+Maud had stood adrift at the window. The image was still on the
+mantelpiece, and he started at the sight of it. "Aunt Will!" he cried
+in quick, half-alarmed tones, "I never made that--it is not my work."
+
+It was not. The professor had been right for once, when he called it a
+genuine savage conception of fate, brought thither by the Gulf Stream.
+
+Rick took it up in his hands and looked at it curiously. "I wonder,"
+he said, half to himself, "if things would have been different." Then,
+with a sort of appeal, he turned to Miss Willina. "Aunt Will--you
+don't really believe--all that rubbish--do you?"
+
+Her answer was decisive. She took the image from him, and marched off
+with it to Kirsty's peat fire.
+
+So that was an end of the tragic comedy of Roederay. When Rick set off
+to sail the seas, all the actors in it had disappeared, save Miss
+Willina in the windblown Noah's Ark at Eval.
+
+Will Lockhart came back the next summer, and painted a picture of
+Eilean-a-fa-ash, with a golden sea-haugh hanging over drifted sand,
+and the skeleton of a hand showing from a stone coffin. It was
+gruesome and morbid; so it was much admired by the Gulf Stream of
+society in the Royal Academy. Miss Willina, however, still refused to
+find entertainment in a magic lantern. The past was sacred, she said,
+and no good ever came in disbelieving in it. Besides, what would
+become of her animals?
+
+He came again the next summer, bringing with him a tale about the
+"flusteration midst the bastes of all creation," which followed on the
+introduction of the "Spirit of fell Denial into the Ark," whereat they
+both laughed.
+
+And that year he sent a picture to the Royal Academy, which a few
+critics admired. But then, it was only the portrait of a middle-aged
+woman with a sick gosling on her lap, and half a dozen zoological
+specimens grouped around her. Yet you could almost feel the northwest
+wind which was ruffling the coils of hair, and smell the fresh, salt,
+wholesome breeze which had swept the sand from those dead fingers at
+Eilean-a-fa-ash. It was the other side of the picture; but it did not
+suit the public taste so well. _Chacun a son gout_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Tideway, by Flora Annie Steel
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