For the present, therefore, he effaced cruel Georgia from his mind, and resolutely set his shoulder to the wheel.
Roderic was himself again, calm, shrewd and with a contempt for danger that might take him to the border land of reckless endeavor, though he usually knew how to check this in good time to make it a servant rather than a master.
The day had gone.
Alas! he had thought to mark it down with a white cross as one that would take him a long step nearer Elysium; but instead it was to be distinguished by a red mark.
Was there a fatality in his love for Georgia?
Were they doomed never to know happiness?
That was the last uneasy thought that came to him ere he shut the whole scene out of his mind, as a rain squall envelopes the landscape.
It was no ordinary affair which Roderic now took up; at least it promised to afford considerable danger, and would call for a display of energy on his part, of no mean calibre.
He went into it with a grim feeling such as he could not remember experiencing on any previous occasion.