r the mud-flats towards the gorse and the
blackened heather. Branksea Island lost its immense foreshores, and
became a sombre episode of trees. Frome was forced inward towards
Dorchester, Stour against Wimborne, Avon towards Salisbury, and over the
immense displacement the sun presided, leading it to triumph ere he sank
to rest. England was alive, throbbing through all her estuaries, crying
for joy through the mouths of all her gulls, and the north wind, with
contrary motion, blew stronger against her rising seas. What did it
mean? For what end are her fair complexities, her changes of soil, her
sinuous coast? Does she belong to those who have moulded her and made
her feared by other lands, or to those who have added nothing to her
power, but have somehow seen her, seen the whole island at once, lying
as a jewel in a silver sea, sailing as a ship of souls, with all the
brave world's fleet accompanying her towards eternity?

CHAPTER XX

Margaret had often wondered at the disturbance that takes place in the
world's waters, when Love, who seems so tiny a pebble, slips in. Whom
does Love concern beyond the beloved and the lover? Yet his impact
deluges a hundred shores. No doubt the disturbance is really the spirit
of the generations, welcoming the new generation, and chafing against
the ultimate Fate, who holds all the seas in the palm of her hand. But
Love cannot understand this. He cannot comprehend another's infinity; he
is conscious only of his own--flying sunbeam, falling rose, pebble that
asks for one quiet plunge below the fretting interplay of space and
time. He knows that he will survive at the end of things, and be
gathered by Fate as a jewel from the slime, and be handed with
admiration round the assembly of the gods. "Men did produce this"
they will say, and, saying, they will give men immortality. But
meanwhile--what agitations meanwhile! The foundations of Property and
Propriety are laid bare, twin rocks; Family Pride flounders to the
surface, puffing and blowing and refusing to be comforted; Theology,
vaguely ascetic, gets up a nasty ground swell. Then the lawyers are
aroused--cold brood--and creep out of their holes. They do what they
can; they tidy up Property and Propriety, reassure Theology and Family
Pride. Half-guineas are poured on the troubled waters, the lawyers creep
back, and, if all has gone well, Love joins one man and woman together
in Matrimony.

Margaret had expected the disturbance, an