They tried to stop me, and even to hold
me back, but for all I was so weak, I pushed them aside and must needs
fling a blanket round me and away back to the beach.
The morning was breaking as I left the Why Not?, for 'twas in no other
place but that I lay, and the wind, though still high, had abated. There
were light clouds crossing the heaven very swiftly, and between them
patches of clear sky where the stars were growing paler before the dawn.
The stars were growing paler; but there was another star, that shone out
from the Manor woods above the village, although I could not see the
house, and told me Grace, like the wise virgins, kept her lamp alight all
night. Yet even that light shone without lustre for me then, for my heart
was too full to think of anything but of him who had laid down his life
for mine, and of the strong kind heart that was stilled for ever.
'Twas well I knew the way, so sure of old, from Why Not? to beach; for I
took no heed to path or feet, but plunged along in the morning dusk,
blind with sorrow and weariness of spirit. There was a fire of driftwood
burning at the back of the beach, and round it crouched a group of men
in reefing jackets and sou'westers waiting for morning to save what they
might from the wreck; but I gave them a wide berth and so passed in the
darkness without a word, and came to the top of the beach.
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