After a cup of tea, I wandered up the heights behind. In these vast solitudes peace and joy came hand in hand to meet me. The extreme loneliness, especially when I was out of sight of the sea at last, and could hear no more the calling of the tide, and only the sough of the wind, was like balm. Ah, those eloquent silences: the deep pain-joy of utter isolation: the shadowy glooms and darkness and mystery of night-fall among the mountains.
In that exquisite solitude I felt a deep exaltation grow. The flowing of the air of the hills laved the parched shores of my heart....
There is something of a strange excitement in the knowledge that two people are here: so intimate and yet so far-off. For it is with me as though Fiona were asleep in another room. I catch myself listening for her step sometimes, for the sudden opening of a door. It is unawaredly that she whispers to me. I am eager to see what she will do—particularly in The Mountain Lovers. It seems passing strange to be here with her alone at last....”
The Mountain Lovers was published in the summer of 1895 by Mr. John Lane. A copy of it was sent to Mr. George Meredith with the following letter:
9 Upper Coltbridge Terrace,
Murrayfield.
Dear Sir,
Will you gratify one of your most loyal readers by the acceptance of the accompanying book? Nothing helped
me so much, or gave me so much enduring pleasure, as your generous message to me about my first book, Pharais, which you sent through my cousin, Mr. William Sharp.