_"And now they are past the last blue headland and in the open sea; and
there is nothing round them but the waves and the sky and the wind. But
the waves are gentle and the sky is clear, and the breeze is tender and
low; for these are the days when Halcyone and Ceyx build their nest and
no storms ever ruffle the pleasant summer sea. And who were Halcyone and
Ceyx? Halcyone was a fairy maiden, the daughter of the beach and of the
wind. And she loved a sailor-boy and married him; and none on earth were
so happy as they. But at last Ceyx was wrecked; and before he could swim
to the shore, the billows swallowed him up. And Halcyone saw him
drowning and leapt into the sea to him; but in vain. Then the Immortals
took pity on them both, and changed them into two fair sea-birds, and
now they build a floating nest every year and sail up and down for ever
upon the pleasant seas of Greece."_

THE HEROES, _Kingsley._





HALCYONE




CHAPTER I


Outside one of the park gates there was a little house. In the
prosperous days of the La Sarthe it had been the land steward's--but