utter
weariness of body and spirit, Helmsley began to reproach himself
bitterly for his rashness. A mere caprice of the imagination,--a fancy
that, perhaps, among the poor and lowly he might find a love or a
friendship he had never met with among the rich and powerful, was all
that had led him forth on this strange journey of which the end could
but be disappointment and failure;--and at the present moment he felt so
thoroughly conscious of his own folly, that he almost resolved on
abandoning his enterprise as soon as he found himself once more on the
main road.

"I will take the first vehicle that comes by,"--he said, "and make for
the nearest railway station. And I'll end my days with a character for
being 'hard as nails!'--that's the only way in which one can win the
respectful consideration of one's fellows as a thoroughly 'sane and
sensible' man!"

Just then, the path he was following started sharply up a steep
acclivity, and there was no other choice left to him but still to
continue in it, as the trees were closing in blindly intricate tangles
about him, and the brushwood was becoming so thick that he could not
have possibly forced a passage through it. His footing grew more
difficult, for now, instead of soft pine-needles and leaves to tread
upon, there were only loose stones, and the rain was blowing in downward
squalls that almost by their very fury threw him backward on the ground.
Up, still up, he went, however, panting painfully as he climbed,--his
breath was short and uneasy--and all his body ached and shivered as with
strong ague. At last,--dizzy and half fainting,--he arrived at the top
of the tedious and troublesome ascent, and uttered an involuntary cry at
the scene of beauty and grandeur stretched in front of him. How far he
had walked he had no idea,--nor did he know how many hours he had taken
in walking,--but he had somehow found his way to the summit of a rocky
wooded height, from which he could survey the whole troubled expanse of
wild sky and wilder sea,--while just below him the hills were split
asunder into a huge cleft, or "coombe," running straight down to the
very lip of ocean, with rampant foliage hanging about it on either side
in lavish garlands of green, and big boulders piled up about it, from
whose smooth surfaces the rain swept off in sleety sheets, leaving them
shining like polished silver. What a wild Paradise was here
disclosed!--what a matchless picture, called into shape and c