that were in shadow showed with a strange distinctness the dark green
of the pasture and the sharp outlines of the rocks; and there was a
cold scent of seaweed in the evening air. The six heavy oars plashed
into the smooth bay. The big boat was moored to the quay, and its
passengers landed once more in Borva. And when they turned, on their
way home, to look from the brow of the hill, on which Sheila had
placed a garden-seat, lo! all the west was on fire, the mountains in
the south had grown dark on their eastern side, and the plain of the
sea was like a lake of blood, with the heavy hull and masts of the
coaster grown large and solemn and distant. There was scarcely a
ripple around the rocks at their feet to break the stillness of the
approaching twilight.

So another day had passed, devoid of adventure or incident. Lavender
had not rescued his wonderful princess from an angry sea, nor had he
shown prowess in slaying a dozen stags, nor in any way distinguished
himself. To all outward appearance the relations of the party were the
same at night as they had been in the morning. But the greatest crises
of life steal on us imperceptibly, and have sometimes occurred and
wound us in their consequences before we know. The memorable things
in a man's career are not always marked by some sharp convulsion. The
youth does not necessarily marry the girl whom he happens to fish out
of a mill-pond: his future life may be far more definitely shaped for
him at a prosaic dinner-table, where he fancies he is only thinking
of the wines. We are indeed but as children seated on the shore,
watching the ripples that come on to our feet; and while the ripples
unceasingly repeat themselves, and while the hour that passes is but
as the hour before it, constellation after constellation has gone by
over our heads unheeded and unseen, and we awake with a start to find
ourselves in a new day, with all our former life cut off from us and