scene at the villa, with her aunt
making the morning toilet of her poodle. Have you got that?"

"To be sure I have; and--not exactly as a pendant to it, for it is
terrific rather than droll--I have got a storm-scene that I took
the morning I came away. The horses were just being harnessed, for I
received a telegram informing me I must be at Ancona two days earlier
than I looked for to catch the Indian mail, and I was taking the last
view before I started. I was in a tremendous hurry, and the whole thing
is smudged and scarce distinguishable. It was the grandest storm I ever
witnessed. The whole sky grew black, and seemed to descend to meet the
lake, as it was lashed to fury by the wind. I had to get a peasant
to hold the instrument for me as I caught one effect--merely one. The
moment was happy, it was just when a great glare of lightning burst
through the black mass of cloud, and lit up the centre of the lake,
at the very moment that a dismasted boat was being drifted along to, I
suppose, certain destruction. Here it is, and here are, as well as I can
make out, two figures. They are certainly figures, blurred as they are,
and that is clearly a woman clinging to a man who is throwing her off:
the action is plainly that I have called it a 'Rent in a Cloud'."

"Don't bring this to-day, Stockwell," said Loyd, as the cold sweat burst
over his face and forehead; "and when you talk of Orta to my wife, say
nothing of the Rent in a Cloud."

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