"If I am to meet my fate here," he murmured, "I sincerely hope it will not be through a temporary aberration of mind. It would be bad enough for one of these creatures to fall in love with me; but to think of two--great heavens, it's too awful to contemplate!"
He urged Simon to a clumsy trot in order to escape the ugly female population, and speedily left the village behind. The road now began to rise towards the two great cliffs which sentinelled the gap, and Dan could hear the roar of the sea; could smell the salt odour of the wave. Up the road he went, and at the entrance to the gap beheld a splendid sight.
Directly in front of him was a narrow slit between the great rocks, and through this he saw the ocean. It faced due east, and the sky flamed crimson like a funeral pile. The ruddy light poured in rich profusion through the chasm and bathed him in hues of blood. A native, with open mouth, was climbing the road after him, and Dan, hearing his heavy footstep, looked round.
"What do you call this?" he asked sharply.
"T' Geates o' Dawn," replied the native, and stared harder than ever.
"And Joy comes up through the Gates of Dawn," murmured Dan, as the gipsy's words flashed again into his mind. "How strange! Here are the 'Gates of Dawn,' but where is the embodied Joy? Hark! Some one is singing from the sea. A mermaid!"
"Noa, measter," said the yokel, grinning from ear to ear at this extravagant idea; "'tis t' ould doctor's lass."
Over the rim of ocean leaped the sun, and shafts of dazzling gold streamed through the Gates of Dawn. The sea turned to fire, and the fierce radiance smote the red firmament to glowing gold. Such splendid glitter and flame poured through the chasm that Dan put his hand to his eyes to keep himself from being blinded. It is ill work to face the sun-god in his anger.
"Apollo is fiercer than Aurora," said Dan, blinking his eyes. "I would rather be Tithonus than Daphne. I wonder she did not share the fate of Semele and expire in the glorious divinity of her lover."
"T' doctor's lass," again said the yokel, nodding up the road.