The steamer lies here five hours, and supper was no sooner over than the
passengers went ashore in the gathering dusk. Mr. Arbuton, guarding his
distance as usual, went too, with a feeling of surprise at his own
concession to the popular impulse. He was not without a desire to see
the old church, wondering in a half-compassionate way what such a bit of
American antiquity would look like; and he had perceived since the
little embarrassment at Cacouna that he was a discomfort to the young
lady involved by it. He had caught no glimpse of her till supper, and
then she had briefly supped with an air of such studied unconsciousness
of his presence that it was plain she was thinking of her mistake every
moment. "Well, I'll leave her the freedom of the boat while we stay,"
thought Mr. Arbuton as he went ashore. He had not the least notion
whither the road led, but like the rest he followed it up through the
village, and on among the cottages which seemed for the most part empty,
and so down a gloomy ravine, in the bottom of which, far beneath the
tremulous rustic bridge, he heard the mysterious crash and fall of an
unseen torrent. Before him towered the shadowy hills up into the
starless night; he thrilled with a sense of the loneliness and
remoteness, and he had a formless wish that some one qualified by the
proper associations and traditions were there to share the satisfaction
he felt in the whole effect. At the same instant he was once more aware
of that delicate pressure, that weight so lightly, sweetly borne upon
his arm. It startled him, and again he followed the road, which with a
sudden turn brought him in sight of a hotel and in sound of a
bowling-alley, and therein young ladies' cackle and laughter, and he
wondered a little scornfully who could be spending the summer there. A
bay of the river loftily shut in by rugged hills lay before him, and on
the shore, just above high-tide, stood what a wandering shadow told him
was the ancient church of Tadoussac. The windows were faintly tinged
with red as from a single taper burning within, and but that the