When Thyrza heard what was to take place, she said brightly, "Wise man! He knows the delight that it is to get Miss Con all to oneself!"
"My dear," I said, "you don't call it exactly 'all to oneself,' with the twins there as well."
"Oh yes, I do! I understand," she retorted, laughing. But of course she did not understand, any more than I did myself.
We started early, and went through one dale after another, each differing from the rest. The twins, sitting behind, back to back with Sir Keith and me, chattered incessantly; but Sir Keith was unwontedly silent. He tried to get up talk from time to time, without much success. I wished nothing better than to be let alone, that eye and mind might feast on the scenery undisturbed. Still I had to respond to his efforts.
After nearly two hours of quick driving we entered a singular valley, unlike most of the dales in our neighbourhood. It was wide, wild, and bare, with extraordinary terraced cliffs on either side, rising tier above tier in perpendicular stone or rather rock walls, each divided from the next by a narrow sloping band of grass. As seen from the road below, the general appearance was like some mighty old Roman fortress. Countless boulders, large and small, lay scattered on the flat valley-bottom. Shrubs grew here or there, but few trees were to be seen.
"If Thyrza were but with us!" I said involuntarily, and Sir Keith turned his head quickly to me.
"She must come too another day," he said, "if—" and a long pause followed. I waited in vain for more. He seemed to relapse into troubled thought.
Near the upper end of the dale we turned into a side-valley, and there dismounted. A certain famous cave had to be inspected. This part of the world seems to abound in caves. There were awkward steps inside, Sir Keith said,—would I allow him to take the twins down first, and to escort me afterwards? I did not see the need for such excessive caution, but his desire was so very evident that I gave way at once, and remained outside, chatting with the old man who has charge of the place, and with him keeping guard over our tethered steed.
The twins presently reappeared in a state of high delight, and I, following Sir Keith's guidance, found myself in a singular spot.
A sharp descent led to the actual entrance of the cave, and then many steep wet rocky steps conducted to the lower depths of a huge hollow. Enormous masses of rock were piled by Nature's hand, beneath, around, and overhead. Some of those overhead seemed suspended in readiness to fall. The steps themselves were roughly shaped out of the natural rock.