This image, of a shape dim and vast and elemental, seemed to flow upwards from land and sea, and stretch forth towards infinite space. It was an image of something beyond human expression, of something beyond earth-loves and earth-hatreds, beyond life and also beyond death. It was the image of Nothingness; and yet in this Nothingness there was a relief, an escape, a refuge, a beyond-hope, which made all the ways of humanity seem indifferent, all its gods childish, all its dreams vain, and yet offered a large cool draught of “deep and liquid rest” the taste of which set the soul completely free.
Many hours passed thus over their heads, as the tide carried them down towards Rodmoor, round the great sweeping curves made by the Loon, through the stubble-fields and the marshes.
It was, at last, the striking of the side of the barge against one of the arches of the New Bridge, which roused the prostrate man from the trance into which he had fallen.
As soon as they had emerged on the further side of the arch, he leapt to his feet. Bending forward towards Philippa, he pointed with an outstretched arm towards the shadowy houses of Rodmoor which, with here and there a faint light in some high window, could now be discerned through the darkness.
“I smell the sea!” he cried. “I smell the sea! Drift on, Phil, my little one, drift on to the harbour! I must leave you now. We shall meet by the sea, my girl—by the sea in the old way—but I can’t wait now. I must be alone, alone, alone!”
Waving his hand wildly with a gesture of farewell, he clutched at a clump of reeds and sprang out upon the bank. Philippa, letting the barge float on as it pleased, followed him with all the speed she could.
He had secured a considerable start of her, however, and it was all she could do to keep him in sight in the darkness.
He ran first towards the church, but when he reached the path which deviated towards the sand-dunes, he turned sharply eastward. He ran wildly, desperately, with no thought in his whole being but the feeling that he must reach the sea and be alone.
He felt at that moment as though the whole of humanity—loathsome, cancerous, suffocating humanity—were pursuing him with outstretched hands.
Once, as he was mid-way between the church path and the dunes, he turned his head, and catching sight of Philippa’s figure following him, he plunged forward in a fury of panic.