"Ay," quoth Eli, of the gale; "she haven't spit out all she've got.
She quit in a temper, at dawn," says he, "an' she'll be back afore
night t' ease her mind."
'Twas a dismal prospect for my uncle.
"But 'twould be a clever gale at flirtin'," Eli added, for my comfort,
"that could delude an' overcome ol' Nick!"
My tutor would go walking upon the roads and heads of our harbor (said
he) to learn of this new world into which he had come in the dark.
'Twas gray and windy and dripping on the hills; but I led him (though
his flimsy protection against the weather liked me not) over the
Whisper Cove road to the cliffs of Tom Tulk's Head, diligently
exercising, as we went, for my profit and his befitting entertainment,
all the Chesterfieldian phrases 'twas in me to recall. 'Twas easy to
perceive his delight in this manner of speech: 'twas a thing so
manifest, indeed, such was the exuberance of his laughter and so often
did he clap me on the back, that I was fairly abashed by the triumph,
and could not for the life of me continue, but must descend, for lack
of spirit, to the common tongue of our folk, which did him well
enough, after all, it seemed. It pleased him mightily to be set on the
crest and brink of that great cliff, high in the mist, the gray wind
blowing by, the black sea careering from an ambush of fog to break in
wrathful assault upon the grim rocks below. 'Twas amazing: the slender
figure drawn in glee to breast the gale, the long arms opened to the
wind, the rapt, dark face, the flashing eyes, the deep, eager breaths
like sighs of rapture. A rhapsody: the rush and growl and frown of the
world (said he)--the sombre colors, the veil of mist, the everlasting
hills, rising in serenity above the turmoil and evanescent rage. To
this I listened in wonder. I had not for myself discovered these
beauties; but thereafter, because of this teaching, I kept watch.
Came, then, out of the mist, Judith, upon accustomed business.
"Dannie, lad," she asked me, not shy of the stranger, because of woful
anxiety, "you've not seed my mother hereabouts, is you?"