, by a long street
leading due southward. Here, though his family had no more to do with
the flax manufacture, his own name occasionally greeted him on gates and
warehouses, being used allusively by small rising tradesmen as a
recommendation, in such words as 'Smith, from Barnet & Co.'--'Robinson,
late manager at Barnet's.' The sight led him to reflect upon his
father's busy life, and he questioned if it had not been far happier than
his own.

The houses along the road became fewer, and presently open ground
appeared between them on either side, the track on the right hand rising
to a higher level till it merged in a knoll. On the summit a row of
builders' scaffold-poles probed the indistinct sky like spears, and at
their bases could be discerned the lower courses of a building lately
begun. Barnet slackened his pace and stood for a few moments without
leaving the centre of the road, apparently not much interested in the
sight, till suddenly his eye was caught by a post in the fore part of the
ground bearing a white board at the top. He went to the rails, vaulted
over, and walked in far enough to discern painted upon the board 'Chateau
Ringdale.'

A dismal irony seemed to lie in the words, and its effect was to irritate
him. Downe, then, had spoken truly. He stuck his umbrella into the sod,
and seized the post with both hands, as if intending to loosen and throw
it down. Then, like one bewildered by an opposition which would exist
none the less though its manifestations were removed, he allowed his arms
to sink to his side.

'Let it be,' he said to himself. 'I have declared there shall be
peace--if possible.'

Taking up his umbrella he quietly left the enclosure, and went on his
way, still keeping his back to the town. He had advanced with more
decision since passing the new building, and soon a hoarse murmur rose
upon the gloom; it was the sound of the sea. The road led to the
harbour, at a distance of a mile from the town, from which the trade of
the district was fed. After seeing the obnoxious name-board Barnet had
forgotten to open his umbrella, and the rain tapped smartly on his hat,
and occasionally stroked his face as he went on.

Though the lamps were still continued at the roadside, they stood at
wider intervals than before, and the pavement had given place to common
road. Every time he came to a lamp an increasing shine made itself
visible upon his shoulders, till at last they quite glistene