"I'll come directly," was all that Miss Elliott vouchsafed, and in short skirt, high rubber boots and golf-cape Gwen went forth. Rolling masses of smoke-colored clouds scudded across the sky. Below it plunged and bellowed the gray sea, which reared itself monstrously and flung its huge breakers against the unyielding rocks in a long line of surf. All along the coast jagged pinnacles and deep chasms received the hissing waves, in their furious onrush, only to fling them back in masses of spray. Where the crags were highest, the chasms deepest, or the far spreading reefs offered most resistance, there was a perfect welter of tossing, seething, bubbling spray which was formed into wonderful balls and was flung aloft by the unseen spirits of the deep. Close in shore a small boat had drifted. At each swell of the surging tide it was taken up and hurled against the rocks until, bit by bit, it was battered to pieces. A few sea-gulls poised themselves above the turbulent ocean, their snowy breasts scarcely discernible in the toss of hurtling waves. Flecks of white blown far in by the mighty gale appeared like strange pale blossoms dotting the fresh green grass which fringed the path along the bluff.
The wind was still blustering through the sombre pines that stood huddled together where the pasture ended, but there were breaks in the flying clouds, and along the west a faint yellow band of light was beginning to shine. As it grew wider and wider it touched the purply-gray rocks with amber; creeping out to sea it turned the leaden masses of water to green, and further on found out the white cottages and red roofs on a distant island. At last it struck with a golden radiance the sails of a far-off vessel, making it appear like a magic ship bound for a land of happy fancy.
The ground, sodden with moisture, oozed water at every step Gwen took, and the tufts of meadow grass were surrounded by small pools. The girl paused first at one point, then another, each outlook fascinating her. At the most rugged point where a giant stairway led down to a fierce turbulence of whirling breakers, she stood transfixed. It seemed strange within sight and sound of that howling sea to see little wild strawberries spotting the hummocks and to hear a song-sparrow's blithe notes above the noise of the pounding waves.
"Isn't it wonderful?" said a voice by her side.
She turned her head slightly to see Kenneth Hilary clad in oil skins and booted for wet weather. "It is beyond words," returned the girl. "I did not dream of seeing anything so marvellous."
"I have been out all day," said Kenneth. "I managed to make two sketches, and I am going to make another when I find just the right spot."
"Isn't it just here?"
"A little further along I think. I am so divided between this ocean side of the island with all its tremendous uproar, and that wonderful sky over the cove that I am torn asunder. How have you been faring? Does your cottage stand bad weather?"
"We have been having a lovely quiet time getting odds and ends finished up, and the cottage stood the storm wonderfully. There was only one tiny leak. How did you all get along?"
"I was nearly drenched in the early hours of the first morning, but I think there was no real damage done. We put basins under the leaks. I moved my bed and let the old roof drip. I shall hunt up a man to get the roof in order at once."