The chasm was in process of extension, and eventually would stretch across the entire headland and detach it altogether.
Now she saw why her mother's cottage had given way. It had been planted on that portion of the crag which had subsided. But the subsidence had been uneven, one-sided, so that what remained of the house was on an incline, and a lateral crack from the main rift had reached and thrown down one of the walls.
In places the turf looked like a pane of glass that had been struck by a cricket ball. It was starred with radiating fractures.
The girl leaned over and looked down the gulf out of which she had emerged. It seemed of prodigious depth and utterly dark.
The lips were not above fifteen feet apart at top, the wall on the land side descended perpendicularly, whereas that on the farther side was slightly inclined.
Only at the extreme end of the chasm where she had mounted was it possible to climb to the top, and it was obvious that the rent was gradually but surely prolonging itself.
CHAPTER XI
A PROPOSAL
Jane Marley was at the kneading trough, with her sleeves tucked up, and her hands in the dough, when a shadow thrown upon her made her look up, and she saw Olver Dench at the window. He nodded to her through the window, came to the door, opened and entered without ceremony.