"Might I ask the reason for this abrupt departure?" I said. "I have heard nothing about it until to-night."
He looked at me for a moment steadily; then he said,
"It is not for me to say; surely you should know that it is next to impossible for her to remain here now."
He also had told me in words as plain as words could tell what she felt. I must think, think alone. I found my way to my bedroom, but my mind would not work there. I must get out under the broad sky, where all was free. So again I left the house, went away towards the highest point on the headland, where, hundreds of feet below, the waves were lashing themselves into foam as they broke upon the great rugged rocks.
CHAPTER XII
NIGHT
"And Esau hated Jacob.… And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob."—The Book of Genesis.
It did not rain, but the wind blew a wild hurricane. Now and then it seemed to cease, and I could hear a kind of moaning sound which the sea made, but again it came as though it would sweep away the great rocks that grimly defied the fury of the elements. I did not mind this, everything accorded with my feelings. I found ease in breasting the storm, I breathed more freely when the wind blew its loudest.
By and by the thunders began to roar and the lightnings to flash, still no rain fell, so I did not mind.