[Illustration: “‘DON’T LET US LOOK ANY MORE.’”]
Aaron was so afraid that Loveday would remember and call him Adolphus again, that he did all he could to keep her mind off it, and talked incessantly, telling her such wonderful tales.
“If Mrs. Tucker doesn’t keep us too long,” said Aaron, “I’ll show you the Fairy Ring, where they come and dance every night at twelve o’clock. It is right on top of the cliff, and not far from Mr. Winter’s.”
“That will be lovely!” cried Loveday delightedly. “Let’s sit down for a minute; I’m tired.”
So they sat down on one of the little steps, and looked down and around and all about them. Already the cottage seemed ever so far off, and so tiny.
“It looks as if there could be only one little room in it, doesn’t it?” said Loveday. “And oh, how far away the sea looks, and that little boat! Why, it is quite a little teeny-tiny thing. Oh, don’t let’s look any more; it makes my head go round so.”
“I’ll sit outside,” said Aaron; “it won’t seem so bad then.”
They changed places, but even then Loveday did not like it.
“Let’s go on,” she said, “up where we can’t see any of it.”
So on they went, and at last reached the green grassy top, and a bit of road which led to the gate of Mr. Winter’s house.
Though Loveday had heard about the closed house and the drawn blinds, it still gave her quite a shock when she saw it. There was such a look of desolation, and sadness, and neglect about the whole place. On the side facing the sea, the flower-beds were overgrown with weeds and flowers which straggled about in a wild tangle, clinging together and choking each other; the drawn blinds were faded, the frames of the fast-shut windows were cracked, and badly in want of some coats of paint. A rose-bush, that at one time must have almost covered the front of the house, had fallen, perhaps during the storms of the past winter, and as it fell so it lay, twisted and broken, and choking the wretched plants which were beneath it.
Loveday felt quite saddened by the sight of it all, and the story of the poor drowned boy and his heart-broken father became terribly real to her--so real that she longed to be able to do something to comfort the poor man. “If only he would open his blinds and windows, and have his garden tidied up, I’m sure he wouldn’t feel so miserable. I think I should cry all day long if I lived here,” she whispered.