Page:Walpole--portrait of man with red hair.djvu/207

 I didn't care overmuch for coming down that bit of rock just now. I'm not much at heights."

"What! that path!" cried Dunbar. "That's nothing. However, there's no need for both of us to go back. You can stay by the boat."

But a sudden determination flamed up in Harkness that it should be he, and none other, that should fetch Hesther Crispin.

"No, I'll go. There's no need for you to come though. We'll be back here in ten minutes. I'll see that she gets down all right."

"Very well," said Dunbar. "But look after her. She's not so good a climber as she thinks she is."

So Harkness started off. He waved his hand to Dunbar who was now busied with the boat, and began his climb. He stumbled over the wet rocks, nearly fell once or twice, and then came to the little path. His thought now was all of Hesther. He played with his imagination, picturing to himself that he was going right out of the world to some unknown heights where she awaited him, having chosen him out of all the world, and there they would live together, alone, happy always in one another's company....

What a fool he was when she was married, and, even if she freed herself from that horrid encumbrance, had that boy down there in the Cove waiting for her. But he could not help his own state. It did no harm. He told no one. It was so new for