The dining-room was solidly prepared with cooked provisions for several days.

Towards evening I went out by myself for a stroll.

I had looked for Margaret to ask her to come with me; but when I found her, she was in one of her apathetic moods, and the charm of her presence seemed lost to me.

Angry with myself, but unable to quell my own spirit of discontent, I went out alone over the rocky headland.
On the cliff, with the wide expanse of wonderful sea before me, and no sound but the dash of waves below and the harsh screams of the seagulls above, my thoughts ran free.

Do what I would, they returned continuously to one subject, the solving of the doubt that was upon me.
Here in the solitude, amid the wide circle of Nature's force and strife, my mind began to work truly.