“What passed during your last visit after your coming here with your mother? What scenes did you see? Where did your grandfather and his friend take you?”
“Nowhere,” she said confidently. “I’m sure of having slept here, in a hammock, as I have done to-day. The others were talking. The two men were smoking. These are things which I had forgotten and which I now recall. I remember the smell of the tobacco and the noise of the uncorking of a bottle. And then—then—I was quite awake, and we had a meal. Outside, the sun was shining——”
“The sun?”
“Yes, it must have been the next day.”
“The next day? You’re sure? Everything lies in this detail,” he said quickly.
“Yes: I’m certain. I awoke here the next day, and, outside, the sun was shining. I see myself still here, yet it is somewhere else. I see the rocks, though they’re no longer in the same place.”
“How? They’re no longer in the same place?” he said in bewildered accents.
“No: the water was no longer washing the foot of them.” [[283]]
“The water was no longer washing the foot of the cliffs and yet you came out of this grotto?” he said.
“I came out of this grotto. Yes: my grandfather led the way; my mother followed, holding me by the hand. It was slippery under our feet. Around us were odd-looking houses—ruins. And then came the chiming of the bells—the same bells we heard to-day.”