She was quite unconscious of his covertly
staring at her, for she was absently looking at the high and bare
precipices, the deserted slopes of dark sea-grass and the lonely
and crumbling ruins. She was wondering whether the ghosts of those
vanished people ever came back to this lonely headland, where they
would find the world scarcely altered since they had left it. Did they
come at night, when the land was dark, and when there was a light
over the sea only coming from the stars? If one were to come at night
alone, and to sit down here by the shore, might not one see strange
things far overhead or hear some sound other than the falling of the
waves?
"Miss Wenna," he said--and she started suddenly--"are you bold enough
to climb with me up to the castle? I know my mother would rather stay
here."
She went with him mechanically. She followed him up the rude steps
cut in the steep slopes of slate, holding his hand where that was
possible, but her head was so full of dreams that she answered him
when he spoke only with a vague yes or no. When they descended again
they found that Mabyn had taken Mrs. Trelyon down to the beach, and
had inveigled her into entering a huge cavern, or rather a natural
tunnel, that went right through underneath the promontory on which the
castle is built. They were in a sort of green-hued twilight, a scent
of seaweed filling the damp air, and their voices raising an echo in
the great hall of rock.
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