Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/110

 B A, the left or eastern arm running, as already said, up the opposite slope and vanishing over it. At the junction B of the three limbs of the —that is, of course, in the bottom of the valley—they came upon the lodge and iron gate of the carriage drive to Trabolgan, which drive was in fact a private continuation southwards, towards Roche’s Tower, of the main road forming the shank B D of the, This road was therefore flush with the carriagedrive, and pursuing it northwards, they turned their backs upon Trabolgan. These dry details of a very tame, uninteresting locality were sharply engraven on our heroine’s memory, ready for the lurid light destined to be thrown upon them by after events.

When they had got about three hundred yards northward, with their backs to Trabolgan Lodge gate, along the main road to Whitegate, Lesbia halted suddenly.

‘Here are a cottage or two, at last,’ she said; ‘it’s really pleasant to see a human habitation, however lowly, in this howling wilderness. I should have been glad to go into that one, where you see a woman with her brats at the door, but no, uncle, I cannot; I feel something pulling me back. We must return to the lane—I am sorry for it, but we must—and then we must continue along the ridge until we sight Queenstown.’

Her uncle saw that her waywardness on this occasion must be humoured, and he turned back at once without reply. They retraced their steps to Trabolgan Lodge, and then re-ascended the lane, the right arm B C of the, until they reached the crest of the hill; they then resumed their northward course, over pastures and wall-stiles as before, making again towards Whitegate, parallel to and above