n tiny lamps
suspended in the ropes. The masts rocked sleepily to the infinitesimal
flux of the tide, which clucked and gurgled with idle regularity in
nooks and holes of the harbour wall.

The twilight was now quite pronounced enough for his purpose; and as,
rather sad at heart, he was about to move on, a little boat containing
two persons glided up the middle of the harbour with the lightness of
a shadow. The boat came opposite him, passed on, and touched the
landing-steps at the further end. One of its occupants was a man, as
Stephen had known by the easy stroke of the oars. When the pair ascended
the steps, and came into greater prominence, he was enabled to discern
that the second personage was a woman; also that she wore a white
decoration--apparently a feather--in her hat or bonnet, which spot of
white was the only distinctly visible portion of her clothing.

Stephen remained a moment in their rear, and they passed on, when he
pursued his way also, and soon forgot the circumstance. Having crossed
a bridge, forsaken the high road, and entered the footpath which led
up the vale to West Endelstow, he heard a little wicket click softly
together some yards ahead. By the time that Stephen had reached the
wicket and passed it, he heard another click of precisely the same
nature from another gate yet further on. Clearly some person or persons
were preceding him along the path, their footsteps being rendered
noiseless by the soft carpet of turf. Stephen now walked a little
quicker, and perceived two forms. One of them bore aloft the white
feather he had noticed in the woman's hat on the quay: they were the
couple he had seen in the boat. Stephen dropped a little further to the
rear.

From the bottom of the valley, along which the path had hitherto lain,
beside the margin of the trickling streamlet, another path now diverged,
and ascended the slope of the left-hand hill. This footway led only to
the residence of Mrs. Swancourt and a cottage or two in its vicinity. No
grass covered this diverging path in portions of its length, and Stephen
was reminded that the pair in front of him had taken this route by the
occasional rattle of loose stones under their feet. Stephen climbed in
the same direction, but for some undefined reason he trod more softly
than did those preceding him. His mind was unconsciously in exercise
upon whom the woman might be--whether a visitor to The Crags, a servant,
or Elfride. He put it to himself y