“So it would seem, but I have hunted in vain for a human being.”
“The people you were calling to from the cliff, couldn’t they tell you something?”
“There were no people there. I was trying to stop the steamer.”
She regarded him in fresh alarm. “Do you mean they have landed us out of our way?–at the wrong place?”
He hesitated. “I am not sure. But we can always get the people of this cottage to take us along in their boat. It is still early; only nine o’clock.”
As they walked toward the cottage she noticed that he was short of breath and that he seemed tired. But his manner was cheerful, even inspiriting, and while she took care to remember that he was still in disgrace, she felt her own courage reviving under the influence of his livelier spirits. Besides, as they stepped out of the woods into the open space at the southern end of the point,–a space about two acres in extent and covered with grass,–and saw the blue sea on three sides, she found new life in the air that came against her face. In deep 72breaths she inhaled this air. Turning her eyes to her left she beheld for the first time the front of the building they had sighted from the steamer. This building, one story high, of rough stone, was nearly sixty feet long by about thirty feet in width.
“What a fascinating cottage!” she exclaimed. “It is almost covered with ivy!”
“Yes, it is picturesque, and I am curious to see the sort of family that lives in such a place.”
“Is no one there now?”
“Nobody.”