"You can cool your heels up there till I come and take you down," he said between his teeth. "If you roll over, you'll roll down, and most likely break your spine, so I advise you to be quiet, and think of your sins."
CHAPTER XXII.
We walked beside the sea
After a day which perished, silently,
Of its own glory.
Nor moon nor stars were out:
They did not dare to tread so soon about,
Though trembling in the footsteps of the sun;
The light was neither night's nor day's, but one
Which, lifelike, had a beauty in its doubt.
E. B. Browning.
On turning his flushed and excited face again towards the seat where he had left Elsa, he found that she was gone. It did not surprise him, but made him resolve instantly to follow and console her. He wandered about for some time amongst the sunny windings of the cliffs before he found the object of his search.
She was crouched down on the grass, her face hidden, her whole frame shaken with sobs. It brought the tears to his own eyes to witness such distress, yet his feeling towards Godfrey was not all anathema. Only exceptional circumstances could have enabled him to assume the post of comforter, and those circumstances had been brought about by the impudent boy.
"Miss Brabourne," he said, gently, looking down at her.
She started, and checked her grief.