Well, I must say it might very easily wear any shape but that, and be improved. I suppose it’s because I’m a plain, prosaic, undreaming mortal, that I remain quite unimpressed by Roche’s Tower. How odd of the spirits of the dream to select such a building! I should blow them up about it, if I were you, Lesbie. But really the coast view is wild and wide, and the ocean breeze is refreshing; so it’s almost worth our trouble, after all. Look! there comes a homeward-bound American liner as big as Letitia’s, or nearly. No doubt she’s going to call here on her way to Liverpool: most of them do.’
The young girl paid no attention, but with an eager expression turned to gaze inland, that is, east and northwards.
‘Let us go a little this way,’ she said, leading on again until they reached the western descent of a valley of considerable but gradual depth, which extended from the cliff in a very straight line northwards. ‘What is that mansion and place with a wood at its back and a thin plantation extending all along the valley? There, I mean, down below us, near the sea.’
‘That, I believe,’ answered Mr Bristley, ‘is or was an Irish lord’s estate; it’s called Trabolgan on the map. Good house, I daresay, fine sea climate, and lots of solitude. Don’t know that I should care to live there, though, somehow.’
‘Good heavens! no, uncle; I should think not indeed! The place is doomed!’
Lesbia rapped out the last four words in that stern, loud, incisive tone which seemed to come from other lips than hers. The clergyman started, and a shade of alarm and annoyance passed over his face, which, however, he instantly suppressed.
‘Come, come, Lesbie, have a drop of sherry and a sand-
