Beyond the street and a row of cottages, they began to climb ;
at first a gentle ascent, on either hand high hedges of flowering
blackthorn, banks strewn with primroses and violets, and starred
with the white stitch wort ; great leaves of foxglove giving promise
for future days. The air was bland, yet exquisitely fresh ; scented



THE WHIRLPOOL 141

from innumerable sources in field and heath and wood. When
the lane gave upon open ground, they made a pause to kx>k back.
Beneath them lay the little grey town, and beyond it the grassy
cliffs, curving about a blue bay. Near by rose Uie craggy slopes
of a bare hill, and beyond it, a few miles to the north, two lofty
peaks, wreathed against the cloudless heaven with rosy mist

'* Sure it won't be too much for you ? '* said Harvey looking up-
wards to the wooded height.
'* I feel equal to anything," answered his companion brightly.
•• This air has given me new life."

There was a faint colour on her cheeks, and for the first time
Harvey caught an expression which reminded him of the face he
had known years ago, when Mrs. Abbott looked upon life much as
Alma did now.
They entered upon a rising heath, green with mosses where the
moisture of a hidden stream drew downwards, brown with dead
bracken on dry slopes. Just above was a great thicket of flowering
gorse ; a blaze of colour, pure, aerial, as that of the sky which il-
lumined it Through this they made their way, then dropped into
a green nook of pasture, among sheep that raised their heads dis-
tnistfuDy, and loud-bleating lambs, each running to its mother.
