Page:The House Without Windows.djvu/83

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a brilliant illumination to the gloomy pine forests around it; the cottage, a tiny brown speck in the distance—and the sea, the billowing sea, with the spots of foam, the towering waves, and that green colour which the waves show when they are agitated. She could even see the gulls, no bigger than flies to her, swooping about; but she was too far away to hear their shrill, excited screams. Long and steadily she looked. And then—the strangest thought Eepersip had ever experienced came to her happy mind. "Forgetfulness!" she whispered to herself. "Oh, I loved it so! and then, when it happened that I came to the woodlands again, why—I forgot it. I must go back instantly. But I am so tired!"

Each wave seemed to bring a pain to Eepersip's heart, as she watched the sea, like emerald, stretching away until it seemed to meet the blue sky. Suddenly she sprang to her feet and started down like a wild deer. Tearing through the woodlands, through the dense thickets and the brambles, she came out at last by the pool. But she had no eye for all its beauties; she had no mind but for the sea. She rested a second; than she was on her feet again, plunging, rearing, fighting her way through the woods. She came again, in the depths of exhaustion, into that pool of light, the meadow. Un-