h pains to
procure. He was fastidious in his reading of opportunities for such an
intended act. The next morning chancing to break fine after a week of
cloudy weather, it was proposed and decided that they should all drive
to Barwith Strand, a local lion which neither Mrs. Swancourt nor Knight
had seen. Knight scented romantic occasions from afar, and foresaw that
such a one might be expected before the coming night.

The journey was along a road by neutral green hills, upon which
hedgerows lay trailing like ropes on a quay. Gaps in these uplands
revealed the blue sea, flecked with a few dashes of white and a solitary
white sail, the whole brimming up to a keen horizon which lay like a
line ruled from hillside to hillside. Then they rolled down a pass, the
chocolate-toned rocks forming a wall on both sides, from one of which
fell a heavy jagged shade over half the roadway. A spout of fresh water
burst from an occasional crevice, and pattering down upon broad green
leaves, ran along as a rivulet at the bottom. Unkempt locks of heather
overhung the brow of each steep, whence at divers points a bramble swung
forth into mid-air, snatching at their head-dresses like a claw.

They mounted the last crest, and the bay which was to be the end of
their pilgrimage burst upon them. The ocean blueness deepened its colour
as it stretched to the foot of the crags, where it terminated in a
fringe of white--silent at this distance, though moving and heaving
like a counterpane upon a restless sleeper. The shadowed hollows of the
purple and brown rocks would have been called blue had not that tint
been so entirely appropriated by the water beside them.

The carriage was put up at a little cottage with a shed attached, and
an ostler and the coachman carried the hamper of provisions down to the
shore.

Knight found his opportunity. 'I did not forget your wish,' he began,
when they were apart from their friends.

Elfride looked as if she did not understand.

'And I have brought you these,' he continued, awkwardly pulling out the
case, and opening it while holding it towards her.

'O Mr. Knight!' said Elfride confusedly, and turning to a lively red; 'I
didn't know you had any intention or meaning in what you said. I thought
it a mere supposition. I don't want them.'

A thought which had flashed into her mind gave the reply a greater
decisiveness than it might otherwise have possessed. To-morrow was the
day for Stephen's letter.

'B