t's wish to see the rock) would not hear of; she insisted
upon staying by herself. "Nobody will run away with me; and I can very
easily amuse myself with picking up shells till you comeback." After
along remonstrance, which produced no effect, this plan was at last
acceded to. With great reluctance Falkland set off with his two
companions; but after the first step, he turned to look back. He caught
her eye, and felt from that moment that their reconciliation was sealed.
They arrived, at last, at the cliff. Its height, its excavations, the
romantic interest which the traditions respecting it had inspired, fully
repaid the two women for the fatigue of their walk. As for Falkland,
he was unconscious of everything around him; he was full of "sweet and
bitter thoughts." In vain the man whom they found loitering there,
in order to serve as a guide, kept dinning in his ear stories of the
marvellous, and exclamations of the sublime. The first words which
aroused him were these; "It's lucky, please your Honour, that you have
just saved the tide. It is but last week that three poor people were
drowned in attempting to come here; as it is, you will have to go home
round the cliff." Falkland started: he felt his heart stand still. "Good
God!" cried Lady Margaret, "what will become of Emily?"

They were--at that instant in one of the caverns, where they had already
been loitering too long. Falkland rushed out to the sands. The tide was
hurrying in with a deep sound, which came on his soul like a knell.
He looked back towards the way they had come: not one hundred yards
distant, and the waters had already covered the path! An eternity would
scarcely atone for the horror of that moment! One great characteristic
of Falkland was his presence of mind. He turned to the man who stood
beside him--he gave him a cool and exact description of the spot where
he had left Emily. He told him to repair with all possible speed to his
home--to launch his boat--to row it to the place he had described. "Be
quick," he added, "and you must be in time: if you are, you shall never
know poverty again." The next moment he was already several yards from
the spot. He ran, or rather flew, till he was stopped by the waters. He
rushed in; they were over a hollow between two rocks--they were already
up to his chest. "There is yet hope," thought he, when he had passed
the spot, and saw the smooth sand before him. For some minutes he was
scarcely sensible of existenc