strath, or narrowing to
a thread as it rose towards the high horizon-line in the west; and
always, when there was a momentary chance, Lionel's eye had sought these
distant sweeps and bends for some glimpse of the lonely angler-maiden,
and sought in vain. The long valley seemed empty; and some little
feeling of shyness prevented his asking his companions to point out the
Junction Pool, whither, as he understood, she had been bound in the
morning. And as they now approached the appointed place of meeting, he
was quite disturbed by the fancy that she might have strayed away into
unknown regions and be absent from this general picnic; and the moment
they came in sight of the group of people who were strolling about, or
looking on while the servants spread out the table-cloth on the heather
and brought forth the various viands, one swift glance told him she was
not present. Here was a disappointment! He wanted to tell her how he had
got on, under her kind instruction--this was his own explanation of the
pang her absence caused him; but presently he had found another; for
Lady Rosamund was grouping the people for her sketch; and what would the
sketch be without Honnor Cunyngham in it? He made bold to say so.

"Oh, you can't depend on Honnor," Lady Adela said. "She may have risen a
fish, or may have got hold of one. But if you want to know whether she
is likely to turn up, you might go out to that point, Mr. Moore, and
then you'll be able to see whether she is coming anywhere near the Bad
Step."

Willingly enough he went down through the scattered birch-trees to a
projecting point overlooking the river from a very considerable height;
and there, right below him, he discovered what it was they called the
Bad Step. The precipice on which he stood going sheer down into the
Aivron, the path along the stream left the banks some distance off, came
up to where he stood, and then descended again by a deep gorge probably
cut by water-power through the slaty rock. And even as he was regarding
this twilit chasm it suddenly appeared to him that there were two
figures away down there, crossing the burn at the foot; and then one of
them, in gray--unmistakably the fisher-maiden herself--began the ascent.
How she managed to obtain a footing he could not make out; for the path
was no path, but merely a zig-zag track on the surface of the loose
shingle--shingle so loose that he could see it yield to her every step,
while the debris rolled awa