While we were
listening to the cataract and what she called the Wynn wail, she
began to sing the wild old air. Then at once the wail sprang into a
loud shriek; Sinfi said the shriek of a cursed spirit; and the
shriek was exactly like the sound I heard from the cliffs a little
while ago.'
'I heard the same noise, Winnie. It was simply the rending and
cracking of the poor churchyard trees as they fell.'
She turned back with me to the water-mark to see the waves come
tumbling in beneath the moon. We sauntered along the sea-margin
again, heedless of the passage of time.
And again (as on that betrothal night) Winifred prattled on,
while I listened to the prattle, craftily throwing in a word or two,
now and then, to direct the course of the sweet music into such
channels as best pleased my lordly whim,--when suddenly, against my
will and reason, there came into my mind that idea of the sea's
prophecy which was so familiar to my childhood, but which my studies
had now made me despise.
The sea then threw up to Winifred's feet a piece of seaweed.
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