"
I had lied in telling him that the old doctor was dead. As a matter
of fact he lay dying that afternoon. Half-way down the hill I saw
the small figure of Jacobs, the sexton, turn in at the church-gate.
He was going to toll the passing-bell.
THE GIFTS OF FEODOR HIMKOFF.
It is just six years ago that I first travelled the coast from
Gorrans Haven to Zoze Point.
Since then I have visited it in fair weather and foul; and in time,
perhaps, shall rival the coastguardsmen, who can walk it blindfold.
But to this day it remains in my recollection the coast I trod,
without companion, during four dark days in December. It was a rude
introduction. The wind blew in my face, with scuds of cold rain; a
leaden mist hung low on the left, and rolled slowly up Channel.
Now and then it thinned enough to reveal a white zigzag of breakers
in front, and a blur of land; or, far below, a cluster of dripping
rocks, with the sea crawling between and lifting their weed. But for
the most part I saw only the furze-bushes beside the path, each
powdered with fine raindrops, that in the aggregate resembled a coat
of grey frieze, and the puffs of spray that shot up over the cliff's
lip and drenched me.
Just beyond the Nare Head, where the path dipped steeply, a bright
square disengaged itself from the mist as I passed, and, around it,
the looming outline of a cottage, between the footpath and the sea.
A habitation more desolate than this odd angle of the coast could
hardly have been chosen; on the other hand, the glow of firelight
within the kitchen window was almost an invitation.
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