| XVI | Mrs. Lester, Too, Would Like It to be the | |
| Twenty-seventh, but Maradick Is Afraid | ||
| of the Devil | [325] | |
| XVII | Morning and Afternoon of the Twenty- | |
| seventh—Tony, Maradick, Janet, and Miss | ||
| Minns Have a Ride After the Wedding | [343] | |
| XVIII | Afternoon and Evening of the Twenty- | |
| seventh—Maradick Goes to Church and | ||
| Afterwards Pays a Visit to Morelli | [368] | |
| XIX | Night of the Twenty-seventh—Maradick and | |
| Mrs. Lester | [387] | |
| XX | Maradick Tells the Family, Has Breakfast | |
| with His Wife, and Says Good-bye to Some | ||
| Friends | [402] | |
| XXI | Six Letters | [421] |
| XXII | The Place | [427] |
PART I
THE ROOM OF THE MINSTRELS
CHAPTER I
THE PLACE
The grey twilight gives to the long, pale stretches of sand the sense of something strangely unreal. As far as the eye can reach, it curves out into the mist, the last vanishing garments, as it were, of some fleeing ghost. The sea comes, smoothly, quite silently, over the breast of it; there is a trembling whisper as it catches the highest stretch of sand and drags it for a moment down the slope, then, with a little sigh, creeps back again a defeated lover.
The sky is grey, with an orange light hovering on its outer edges, the last signal of the setting sun. A very faint mist is creeping gradually over the sea, so faint that the silver circle of the rising moon shines quite clearly through the shadows; but it changes the pale yellow of the ghostly sand into a dark grey land without form and void, seeming for a moment to be one with sea and sky, and then rising again, out of obscurity, into definite substance.
There is silence here in the creek, save for the rustling and whisper of the sea, but round the bend of the rocks the noises of the town come full upon the ear.