Ladywell was pleased. 'I am here at present making sketches for my next
subject--a winter sea. Otherwise I should not have--happened to be in
the church.'

'You are acquainted with Mrs. Petherwin--I think you are Mr. Ladywell,
who painted her portrait last season?'

'Yes,' said Ladywell, colouring.

'You may have heard her speak of Mr. Julian?'

'O yes,' said Ladywell, offering his hand. Then by degrees their tongues
wound closer round the subject of their sadness, each tacitly owning to
what he would not tell.

'I saw it,' said Ladywell heavily.

'Did she look troubled?'

'Not in the least--bright and fresh as a May morning. She has played me
many a bitter trick, and poor Neigh too, a friend of mine. But I cannot
help forgiving her. . . . I saw a carriage at the door, and strolled in.
The ceremony was just proceeding, so I sat down here. Well, I have done
with Knollsea. The place has no further interest for me now. I may own
to you as a friend, that if she had not been living here I should have
studied at some other coast--of course that's in confidence.'

'I understand, quite.'

'I only arrived in the neighbourhood two days ago, and did not set eyes
upon her till this morning, she has kept so entirely indoors.'

Then the young men parted, and half-an-hour later the ingenuous Ladywell
came from the visitors' inn by the shore, a man walking behind him with a
quantity of artists' materials and appliances. He went on board the
steamer, which this morning had performed the passage in safety.
Ethelberta single having been the loadstone in the cliffs that had
attracted Ladywell hither, Ethelberta married was the negative pole of
the same, sending him away. And thus did a woman put an end to the only
opportunity of distinction, on Art-exhibition walls, that ever offered
itself to the tortuous ways, quaint alleys, and marbled bluffs of
Knollsea, as accessories in the picture of a winter sea.

Christopher's interest in the village was of the same evaporating nature.
He looked upon the sea, and the great swell, and the waves sending up a
sound like the huzzas of multitudes; but all the wild scene was irksome
now. The ocean-bound steamers far away on the horizon inspired him with
no curiosity as to their destination; the house Ethelberta had occupied
was positively hateful; and he turned away to wait impatiently for the
hour at which he had promised to drive on to meet Sol at Corvsgate.

Sol and Chick