The
rough door of such a cellar appeared in the side of this small
declivity, and as Caius came round the back of the byre in sight of it,
he was surprised to see the farmer's wife holding the latch of its door
in her hand and looking vacantly into the dark interior. She looked up
and answered the young man's greeting with apathetic manner, apparently
quite indifferent to the scene she had just passed through.
Caius, his mind still in the rush of indignation on her behalf, stopped
at the sight of her, wondering what he could do or say to express the
wild pity that surged within him.
But the woman said, "The tide's late to-night," exactly as she might
have remarked with dry civility that it was fine weather.
"Yes," said Caius, "I suppose it will be."
She was looking into the cellar, not towards the edge of the bank.
"With a decent strong tide," she remarked, "you can hear the waves in
this cave."
Whereupon she walked slowly past him back toward her house. Caius took
the precaution to step after her round the end of the byre, just to see
that her husband was not lying in wait for her there. There was no one
to be seen but the children at a distance, still swinging on the gate,
and a labourer who was driving some cows from the field.
Caius slipped down on to the red shore, and found himself in a wide
semicircular bay, near the point which ended it on this side.
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