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In the summer of 1889, at Seascale, on the Cumberland coast, Ruskin was still busy upon "Præterita." He had his task planned out to the finish: in nine more chapters he meant to conclude his third volume with a review of the leading memories of his life, down to the year 1875, when the story was to close.

His part was to keep aloof from her, and to wait for her inevitable submission. Violent rain was beating upon the carriage windows; it drove from the mountains, themselves invisible, though dense low clouds marked their position. Poor Rhoda! She would not have a very cheerful day at Seascale. Perhaps she would follow him by a later train.

You must have known I was going, when I asked you for her Seascale address. 'And what did happen? I shall be glad to hear if you feel at liberty to tell me. After a pause, Everard began the narrative. But he did not see fit to give it with all the detail which Mary had learnt from her friend. He spoke of the excursion to Wastwater, and of the subsequent meeting on the shore.

Miss Vesper can do all that's necessary. 'Even to inspiring the girls with zeal for an independent life? 'Perhaps even that. They went along by the waves, in the warm-coloured twilight, until the houses of Seascale were hidden. Then Everard stopped. 'To-morrow we go to Coniston? he said, smiling as he stood before her. 'You are going? 'Do you think I can leave you? Rhoda's eyes fell.

You argue that the man who would mislead an innocent girl and then cast her off is more likely than not to be guilty in a case like this of Mrs. Widdowson, when appearances are decidedly against him. There is only my word in each instance. The question is Will you accept my word? For a wonder, their privacy was threatened by the approach of two men who were walking this way from Seascale.

I don't know exactly what happened, for my questions weren't encouraged; but he operated on the person when he ought not, or else didn't operate when he ought; anyhow the person was a high personage, so there was trouble, and then might have been a legal inquiry if Doctor James hadn't gone one day to Seascale, and from there disappeared.

Lest curiosity should be excited by his making inquiries at the hotel, Barfoot proposed to walk over to Gosforth, the nearest town, this afternoon, and learn where the registrar for the locality of Seascale might be found.

Their rambling, with talk in a strain of easy friendliness, brought them back to Seascale half an hour after sunset, which was of a kind that seemed to promise well for the morrow. 'Won't you come out again after supper? Barfoot asked. 'Not again to-night. 'For a quarter of an hour, he urged. 'Just down to the sea and back. 'I have been walking all day. I shall be glad to rest and read.

Seascale has no street, no shops; only two or three short rows of houses irregularly placed on the rising ground above the beach. To cross the intervening railway, Rhoda could either pass through the little station, in which case she would also pass the hotel and be observable from its chief windows, or descend by a longer road which led under a bridge, and in this way avoid the hotel altogether.

In his bedroom at Seascale, morning after morning, he still worked, or tried to work, as he had been used to do on journeys farther afield in brighter days.