'
'Thank you, Elfie; then I think I will.'
Her form diminished to blackness in the moonlight, and Knight,
after remaining upon the churchyard stile a few minutes longer,
turned back again towards the building. His usual course was now
to light a cigar or pipe, and indulge in a quiet meditation. But
to-night his mind was too tense to bethink itself of such a
solace. He merely walked round to the site of the fallen tower,
and sat himself down upon some of the large stones which had
composed it until this day, when the chain of circumstance
originated by Stephen Smith, while in the employ of Mr. Hewby, the
London man of art, had brought about its overthrow.
Pondering on the possible episodes of Elfride's past life, and on
how he had supposed her to have had no past justifying the name,
he sat and regarded the white tomb of young Jethway, now close in
front of him. The sea, though comparatively placid, could as
usual be heard from this point along the whole distance between
promontories to the right and left, floundering and entangling
itself among the insulated stacks of rock which dotted the water's
edge--the miserable skeletons of tortured old cliffs that would
not even yet succumb to the wear and tear of the tides.
As a change from thoughts not of a very cheerful kind, Knight
attempted exertion. He stood up, and prepared to ascend to the
summit of the ruinous heap of stones, from which a more extended
outlook was obtainable than from the ground.
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