4. JULY THE TWENTY-FIRST

A very popular local excursion by steamboat to Lulstead Cove was
announced through the streets of Budmouth one Thursday morning by
the weak-voiced town-crier, to start at six o'clock the same day.
The weather was lovely, and the opportunity being the first of the
kind offered to them, Owen and Cytherea went with the rest.

They had reached the Cove, and had walked landward for nearly an
hour over the hill which rose beside the strand, when Graye
recollected that two or three miles yet further inland from this
spot was an interesting mediaeval ruin. He was already familiar
with its characteristics through the medium of an archaeological
work, and now finding himself so close to the reality, felt inclined
to verify some theory he had formed respecting it. Concluding that
there would be just sufficient time for him to go there and return
before the boat had left the shore, he parted from Cytherea on the
hill, struck downwards, and then up a heathery valley.

She remained on the summit where he had left her till the time of
his expected return, scanning the details of the prospect around.
Placidly spread out before her on the south was the open Channel,
reflecting a blue intenser by many shades than that of the sky
overhead, and dotted in the foreground by half-a-dozen small craft
of contrasting rig, their sails graduating in hue from extreme
whiteness to reddish brown, the varying actual colours varied again
in a double degree by the rays of the declining sun.

Presently the distant bell from the boat was heard, warning the