'True, true,' Biffins replied; 'it is a pity about the lass; it is a pity all ways of it, and—I'll never get another like Lotty.'
Blake walked away. He felt that had he waited another minute he would have been tempted to fell the man on the beach where he stood.
He met Mary. Poor fat soul! she was wringing her hands in the anguish of really womanly grief.
'Oh, my bonny bairn!' she was crying. 'Oh, Mr Blake, you loved her, but will never see the lassie mair.'
'Cheer up, Mrs Pendlebury; cheer up, we may still hope.'
'Hope, sir; hope? Na, na; there are few ships on that dark sea at this time of the year. Oh, the cruel winds and the cruel, cruel waves!'
Chops was huddled up beside the great caravan, silent, dumb with the great sorrow that had overtaken him. Having no word of comfort to utter, Antony entered the 'Gipsy Queen' and lit his lamps. Wallace was on the sofa. He whined and cried when Antony came in. Well did he know his mistress was gone. The young man sat down beside him and took his great head in his lap; but the dog refused consolation, and at every outside sound lifted his head, holding it a little to one side as he listened and watched the door.
All this was more than Antony could endure, and he formed a sudden resolve. He would go right away out into the night, and, if he could but find his way through the upland woods, pay a visit to Crona in her lonely cottage. Battling with the wind would help to assuage his grief.
'Yes, Wallace, you may come. We are going to the house of Crona, dear boy.'
The dog sprang down off the couch at once and shook himself in readiness. No doubt he thought he was going to find Lotty.