From this to a belief that it was she who had intervened to save both himself and his Aunt Charlotte from serious disasters was but a single step; and like Mary of old, in the presence of an even greater mystery, he revolved all these things silently in his heart.
It was during the period when he was occupied with this train of thought that another strange thing occurred.

One evening he strolled into the garden just as the sun was setting.

It was one of those lurid sunsets peculiar to autumn, which look like a distant conflagration obscured by a veil of smoke.

The western sky was aglow with a dull, murky crimson flecked by clouds of the deepest indigo, from behind which there seemed to shoot up luminous pulsations like the reflection of unseen flames.

The effect of this red, throbbing light upon the garden in which he stood was almost unearthly, something resembling that of an eclipse viewed through warm-coloured glass; beautiful in itself, yet abnormal, fantastic, suggestive of weird imaginings.
Austin, absorbed in contemplation, moved slowly through the shrubbery until he reached the lawn; then came to a dead stop.