CHAPTER XLV

A CHANCE MEETING

AFTER Chimp had gone away Helen settled down to her quiet life again. He had done her good. In the sunshine of his honest face she had thrown open some of the closed places of her heart, and they had been filled for a time at least with warmth and light. She wished he would come back, as he hoped to do, and she felt happier and more content. A week or two went by, and though it was still February the early western spring was coming on apace. The garden was bright with crocuses and daffodils and violets, and there were some primroses on the banks. On a chestnut tree near the house the brown buds glistened in the sun. The sky was clear and blue, and the air was delightful to breathe. It was the scented air of spring, full of life and joy. Will the air always feel like that, will it be an eternal spring, when we wake from the winter of death?

One lovely morning Helen took a book and walked out towards the sea-shore. The wind was from the north-east, and she knew a place where she would be perfectly sheltered from it. She went to the cliff above Meadfoot, where she was generally free from interruption, and removed a hairy brown-headed caterpillar from her favourite seat in the midst of some flowering gorse, and settled herself comfortably with a rug over her knees and her book in her lap. Somehow she did not feel much inclined to read, and as she was not pressed for time she sat back and let herself enjoy her idleness. One of the priceless lessons Aunt Madge had taught her was that a few hours spent in doing nothing, with God's glorious nature around her, need not necessarily be harmful. One must have time to see, Miss Treveryan used to say, and time to think.

It was very beautiful. Overhead a few broken white clouds

were sailing across the blue sky. The sun was deliciously warm. In front, to the south, perhaps two hundred feet below, lay the waters of Tor Bay. The town and the bottom of the bay were to the right, hidden by a bold projecting headland. From behind it, five miles or more away, the shore swept out eastwards, towards the open sea, in a straight blue line which ended with the clear-cut rocky point of Berry Head. The line was broken just opposite by the town and harbour of Brixham. The sun touched some of the Brixham roofs; and the gray smoke lay in the gap above them, showing the outline of the hills upon which the town was built, and separating them from the blue folds of land beyond. In the harbour mouth Helen could see the dark hulls of some trawlers at anchor. The horizon to seaward, to the left, was white and hazy, and the parting of sea and sky was almost lost. High above it was a bank of rounded clouds, whose summits stood out bright and clear against the blue. To the extreme left was the point of cliff which protected the bay from the northward, and seemingly close by it the great gray masses of the Thatcher and Orestone Rocks rose out of the water. There was more wind down below than in the upper sky. It came from behind the point to the left, and Helen could see the breakers and the spirts of foam about the flat Orestone. From there to the bold sides of the Thatcher, and beyond it into the mouth of the bay, the lines of white horses were racing merrily in the sunlight. Even across the bay under Berry Head, which caught the full force of the wind, Helen could see the foam flashing up at times, as a big wave burst on the rocks. Out to sea the water was bright green with purple shadows of cloud. In the bay it was blue. The sunlight lay in a broad luminous track right across the bay, from the southern shore to the rocky beach under Helen's feet. The nearer part of the track was broken and stirred, particularly about the edges, by the motion of the waves. From the middle of it stood out the squat triangular Shag Rock, very solid and black.

Helen sat dreamily enjoying it all, watching the occasional signs of life which came to stir the picture. First she saw the short white smoke of a train come out from behind the headland on the right and run along the blue coast-line close by the sea. It disappeared for a time, and then came out again, and circled round in front of her towards Brixham, and stopped. After that two of the black colony on the Shag Rock flew down to the water. They skimmed along the surface for some distance, and

dropped one after another nearly opposite to where Helen was sitting. She watched them diving, and tried to guess where they would come up again, and always failed. Then a small cutter with white sails came across from the direction of Berry Head. She had a good breeze, and was lying over so that the slope of her sails was just the same as the slope of the rocky point. The little vessel stood on until she was within a quarter of a mile or so of the beach; then she came up into the wind, and her sails shivered in the sunlight, and she went plunging gallantly out to sea. Helen saw the black hull now high out of water, now disappearing in a flash of white foam, as she buried her bowsprit in a wave.

'I wish I was on board,' Helen thought, with a recollection of her young days; 'but they seem to be getting very wet.'

The white sail went on past the Thatcher, and out to the open sea, until she seemed to be dancing on the shoulder of the great gray rock, and then she was hidden behind it. The shags had flown away now; but a big white gull, with black tips to its wings, came round the point to the left, and remained for a minute or two high above the water, swinging up and down; then it dropped and vanished.

After that Helen heard the trot of horses on the road below, between the cliff and the sea, and a carriage went by. As she was looking at it a little girl of seven or eight ran out on to the rocky beach, followed by a small rough-haired dog, and at some distance by a nurse. Helen could hear the child's shrill laughter, and the sharp bark of the dog. 'You dear little scamp,' she said to herself, 'you will get caught if you don't take care;' and as she spoke a wave came in, and there was a stampede. The dog escaped to a safe place, and turned round barking furiously; but the child slipped on a bit of rock and nearly fell, and was overtaken. Helen saw the foam come round her little hurrying legs; and as it went back the nurse swooped down and seized her and dragged her away. 'Poor darling,' Helen thought, 'now you will have a bad time of it.' A minute later two boys scrambled up the sloping cliff, and stopped not far from where Helen was sitting. She had made acquaintance with them before, but they did not see her. The smaller of them said to the other: 'I say, I bet you can't shy a stone into the water from here.' 'Rot! I bet you I can.'

'Well, let's see you.'

Helen called out to them, 'Take care, you bad boys. There are some people somewhere just below.'

They turned round, and the elder of them said, 'Halloo, I didn't see you were there.' Then they came up and had a talk with her. They had got a whole holiday, and had been out fishing in the early morning; but it was too rough, and they were not doing anything particular now.

6

Well, don't throw stones down there without looking, because you might hurt some one.'

'Yes, I know; it's beastly dangerous,' the elder boy said. 'Thanks awfully for reminding me. I did shy a stone from near here once, and hit an old chap in the road, and there was an awful row.'

'I don't wonder. What happened?'

'Well, there was another chap with him, and he came up after me, and I saw the other old chap sitting down with his hands up to his head, and I got in rather a funk, and thought I'd better cut.'

'Oh, you little coward! Did he catch you?'

'No; but he knew who I was, and he went and sneaked to my father, and my father got in a tremendous wax.

jolly near killed him.'

He said I'd

'I daresay you did, if you hit the poor old gentleman on the head.'

'Yes, I expect I did; but I didn't mean to, a bit; and you can't always tell just where a stone is going to drop when you've shied it, can you?'

'No, I suppose not. The best way is not to shy it unless you're sure there is no one about.'

'Yes, of course. Only old chaps like that get into such rum places sometimes, and they never look out a bit. It's rather bad luck to say it's all our fault for not looking out, when they don't look out themselves. But he was an awful nice old chap all the same. I met him on the road one day, and he knew me, and said something; and I said I was very sorry I hurt him; and he said it didn't matter, and gave me ten bob. So I was rather glad I did it after all. At least, I was awfully sorry I hurt him, of course, because he was such a jolly old chap, but I was glad for myself.'

Helen appreciated the distinction, and said so. After a few more words the boys went off, and there was silence again, but for the sound of the waves on the shore below.

On the hill to the left, above the point, they were harrowing a steep sloping field. The earth was a very rich red, and the

gray horses showed out clearly against it. Beyond was the bright green sea. Helen's eyes passed from one to the other with a keen appreciation of the warm Devonshire colouring, and then her thoughts went wandering far away. In the offing she could see a large steamer going down channel. Was it going out to India? she wondered. Oh, if she could go with it, and have those dear happy Syntia days again. How short they were! She began thinking of that bygone time, and all the quiet pleasantness of her life with her father, -the rides on Sultan, and the cheery evenings at the tennis-ground, and the merry friendly dinners, and the moonlight picnics, and the dances at the Mess, and the happy Sundays. How bright and delightful it was! Suddenly Rex raised his head with a look of attention. Some one was coming along the path.

There

A few seconds later two gentlemen turned the corner. was hardly room for them abreast; and the one in front, a tall strongly-built man, was talking over his shoulder to the other. 'Don't believe that cant,' he said in a deep powerful voice; 'no other nation on earth could have done what we have done in India; and we ought to be proud of it, instead of trying to be ashamed. We have established our rule over two hundred and fifty millions of men, thousands of miles away from England, and are ruling them justly and well. It is the biggest thing a

nation has ever done.'

The tone and something in the sentiment struck Helen as familiar, and she looked at the speaker and knew him at once. 'Major Russell,' she thought. How curious! I suppose he would not remember me.' She was sorry to think it; any one she had met in India seemed like a friend to her. But he did remember. As he came near he looked at her, and she could see the recognition come into his eyes. He lifted his hat doubtfully, and then stopped. As he did so, Helen got up, and he saw he was right. 'Mrs. Langley?' he said. 'I thought I could not be mistaken. Are you living here?'

She told him, and they stood for a minute or two talking. His friend had walked on. Russell said his father and mother had taken a house in Torquay for the winter, and he had some leave and had come to spend it with them. 'I hope you will let my mother come and see you?' he asked.

She had become shy of meeting strangers, but there was something very reassuring about Russell's manner. His dark grave eyes were as soft as a woman's now. He was thinking of