Page 173 - The snake's pass

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MY NEW PROPERTY. 161
his remarks to the effect that marriages between persons
of unequal social status were inadvisable—he, dear old
fellow, seemingly in his transparent honesty unaware
that he was laying himself out with all his power to
violate his own principles.
But all the time I was simply heartbroken. To say
that I was consumed with a burning anxiety would be to
to understate the matter ; I was simply in a fever. I
could neither eat nor sleep satisfactorily, and—sleeping
or waking—my brain was in a whirl of doubts, conjec-
tures, fears and hopes. The most difficult part to bear
was my utter inability to do anything. I could not pro-
claim my love or my loss on the hill-top; I did not
know where to make inquiries, and I had no idea who
to inquire for. I did not even like to tell Dick the full
extent of my woes.
Love has a modesty of its own, whose lines are boldly
drawn, and whose rules are stern.
On more than one occasion I left the hotel secretly
after having ostensibly retired for the night—and wended
my way to Knocknacar. As I passed through the sleep-
ing country I heard the dogs bark in the cottages as I
went by, but little other sound I ever heard except the
booming of the distant sea. On more than one of these
occasions I was drenched with rain—for the weather had
now become thoroughly unsettled. But I heeded it
not; indeed the physical discomfort—when I felt it
was in some measure an anodyne to the torture of my
restless soul.
M