Knight fell to dreaming too,though he continued wide awake.It was pleasant to realize the implicit trust she placed in him,and to think of the charming innocence of one who could sink to sleep in so simple and unceremonious a manner.More than all,the musing unpractical student felt the immense responsibility he was taking upon himself by becoming the protector and guide of such a trusting creature.The quiet slumber of her soul lent a quietness to his own.Then she moaned,and turned herself restlessly.
Presently her mutterings became distinct:
Dont tell him--he will not love me.I did not mean any disgrace--indeed I did not,so dont tell Harry.We were going to be married--that was why I ran away.And he says he will not have a kissed woman.And if you tell him he will go away,and I shall die.I pray have mercy--Oh!
Elfride started up wildly.
The previous moment a musical ding-dong had spread into the air from their right hand,and awakened her.
What is it?she exclaimed in terror.
Only "eight bells,"said Knight soothingly.Dont be frightened,little bird,you are safe.What have you been dreaming about?
I cant tell,I cant tell!she said with a shudder.Oh,I dont know what to do!
Stay quietly with me.We shall soon see the dawn now.Look,the morning star is lovely over there.The clouds have completely cleared off whilst you have been sleeping.What have you been dreaming of?
A woman in our parish.
Dont you like her?
I dont.She doesnt like me.Where are we?
About south of the Exe.
Knight said no more on the words of her dream.They watched the sky till Elfride grew calm,and the dawn appeared.It was mere wan lightness first.Then the wind blew in a changed spirit,and died away to a zephyr.The star dissolved into the day.
Thats how I should like to die,said Elfride,rising from her seat and leaning over the bulwark to watch the stars last expiring gleam.
As the lines say,Knight replied----
"To set as sets the morning star,which goes Not down behind the darkend west,nor hides Obscured among the tempests of the sky,But melts away into the light of heaven."
Oh,other people have thought the same thing,have they?Thats always the case with my originalities--they are original to nobody but myself.
Not only the case with yours.When I was a young hand at reviewing I used to find that a frightful pitfall--dilating upon subjects I met with,which were novelties to me,and finding afterwards they had been exhausted by the thinking world when I was in pinafores.
That is delightful.Whenever I find you have done a foolish thing I am glad,because it seems to bring you a little nearer to me,who have done many.And Elfride thought again of her enemy asleep under the deck they trod.
All up the coast,prominences singled themselves out from recesses.Then a rosy sky spread over the eastern sea and behind the low line of land,flinging its livery in dashes upon the thin airy clouds in that direction.Every projection on the land seemed now so many fingers anxious to catch a little of the liquid light thrown so prodigally over the sky,and after a fantastic time of lustrous yellows in the east,the higher elevations along the shore were flooded with the same hues.The bluff and bare contours of Start Point caught the brightest,earliest glow of all,and so also did the sides of its white lighthouse,perched upon a shelf in its precipitous front like a mediaeval saint in a niche.Their lofty neighbour Bolt Head on the left remained as yet ungilded,and retained its gray.
Then up came the sun,as it were in jerks,just to seaward of the easternmost point of land,flinging out a Jacobs-ladder path of light from itself to Elfride and Knight,and coating them with rays in a few minutes.The inferior dignitaries of the shore--
Froward Point,Berry Head,and Prawle--all had acquired their share of the illumination ere this,and at length the very smallest protuberance of wave,cliff,or inlet,even to the innermost recesses of the lovely valley of the Dart,had its portion;and sunlight,now the common possession of all,ceased to be the wonderful and coveted thing it had been a short half hour before.
After breakfast,Plymouth arose into view,and grew distincter to their nearing vision,the Breakwater appearing like a streak of phosphoric light upon the surface of the sea.Elfride looked furtively around for Mrs.Jethway,but could discern no shape like hers.Afterwards,in the bustle of landing,she looked again with the same result,by which time the woman had probably glided upon the quay unobserved.Expanding with a sense of relief,Elfride waited whilst Knight looked to their luggage,and then saw her father approaching through the crowd,twirling his walking-stick to catch their attention.Elbowing their way to him they all entered the town,which smiled as sunny a smile upon Elfride as it had done between one and two years earlier,when she had entered it at precisely the same hour as the bride-elect of Stephen Smith.
