"Light!" whispered Paulton, overcome by what he had heard and seen.
"What is that?" asked O'Brien, catching Phelan's hand, and pointing down to where the western gallery had glowed a minute ago. Light was seen piercing the cliff to the westward.
For a while no answer was given. Then, in accents of awe and fear, the boatman answered:
"A light--a light made by no mortal hand!"
Far down in the gloom of the western gallery a yellow spot shone!
CHAPTER XLIII.
[A RETROSPECT.]
Mrs. Davenport's visit to the Black Rock that day had not been one of mere curiosity, although nothing of import to her life was likely to result from it. Her career was over, if, indeed, it might be said ever to have begun.
In her younger days she had been abandoned by the only man she had ever loved, and wed to a man whom she never loved, whom she could not even esteem. She had sworn to love her husband; she had fairly tried, and wholly failed. To her husband she had been a blameless wife, an admirable companion. He had signified his approval of her conduct by leaving her his fortune. All her lifetime she had been too proud to care for money, and now she could not take it. Her father had prevented her marrying the good-for-nothing, beggarly scamp, Tom Blake, and forced her into the arms of the elderly, rich, excellent Mr. Louis Davenport. In those days she had been torn by tempests of love and hate, of aspirations and despairs, which no mortal eye had seen, no mortal ear had heard. In the solitude of her own room, and of the woods about her father's home, she had wept and stormed, and pitied herself with the broken-hearted self-pity of youth. She had cast herself against the bars that confined her, and wished that the fury which shook her might end her. She had prayed in vain for death. In answer to her passionate appeals for a shroud, heaven sent her a bridal veil. When Blake gave her up, she did not care whether she walked into an open grave or up to the marriage altar. She took no interest in herself: why should she take interest in any one else?
If Blake had asked her to fly with him then, she would have rushed into his arms with unspeakable eagerness and joy. But he sold his claim to her for a sum of money, and walked off with the cash in his pocket!