Let me 'stand by.'"
CHAPTER XIV
THE FLAME OF LOVE
Diana's gaze wandered idly over the blue stretch of water, as it lay
beneath the blazing August sun, while the sea-gulls, like streaks of
white light, wheeled through the shimmering haze of the atmosphere.
Her hands were loosely clasped around her knees, and a little
evanescent smile played about her lips. Behind her, the great red
cliffs of Culver Point reared up against the sapphire of the sky, and
she was thinking dreamily of that day, nearly eighteen months ago, when
she had been sitting in the self-same place, leaning against the
self-same rock, whilst a grey waste of water crept hungrily up to her
very feet, threatening to claim her as its prey. And then Errington
had come, and straightway all the danger was passed.
Looking back, it seemed as though that had always been the way of
things. Some menace had arisen, either by land or sea--or even, as at
her recital, out of the very intensity of feeling which her singing had
inspired--and immediately Max had intervened and the danger had been
averted.
She laid her hand caressingly on the sun-warmed surface of the rock.
How many things had happened since she had last leaned against its
uncomfortable excrescences! She felt quite affectionately towards it,
as one who has journeyed far may feel towards some old landmark of his
youth which he finds unaltered on his return, from wandering in strange
lands.
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