It was early in the morning, and long shadows from the mountain fell sheer across the little loch, letting in gleams of light only in one or two places where the hills were cleft into fissures and valleys, their sides rich with heath, through which the sunshine poured upon the waters in purple and golden splendor.
Through these cool shadows and glowing ripples of light our boat passed to the opposite shore. A footpath led from the public beach along the side of a valley winding upward with gradual ascent, to the house we had seen. It was a stone building, evidently the abode of a sheep-farmer, whose flocks were scattered over the hill-side, cropping the short grass from among the heath.
It was strange, but this scene seemed familiar to me; the old stone house, the lake, the opposite mountains, bold and rugged, the very sheep whitening the hollows, like masses of snow, reminded me of some foregone impression vivid as the reality. I bethought myself, with a start, and stood breathless, gazing upon the house. It was that house, those mountains, and the quiet lake below that I had seen in my sleep that night at Marston Court, where, amid storm and lightning, the history of my parents was pictured in fragments like that before me.
I looked at Chaleco, but he was gazing indifferently around; evidently the scene had no such associations for him. The power which he possessed had been sufficient to awaken memory, not create belief in a thing that had never existed.
A mountain vine, whose leaves were red with their autumnal death sap, clambered up the front of the old house, hanging around the windows and eaves, like fragments of hostile banners, in wild keeping with the rugged scenery. Two or three narrow windows were almost choked up by its red foliage; but from one, overlooking the lake, it had been forced back in gorgeous festoons, revealing a lattice full of diamond-shaped glass, upon which the sunbeams were shining.
As I stood looking at this window, it was gently opened. A face peered out, and the lattice closed again, before the cry of surprise and joy had left my lips.
“What is it?” said Chaleco, turning sharply at my exclamation.
“It is she! It is Cora!”
“Oh, is that all? I expected to find her here.”
“But she saw me, and shrunk away.”