CHAPTER IX.
Tallente took tea that afternoon with his three guests upon the terrace.
Before them towered the wood-embosomed cliffs, with here and there great red gashes of scarred sandstone.

Beyond lay the sloping meadow, with its clumps of bracken and grey stone walls, and in the background a more rugged line of rocky cliffs.

The sea in the bay flashed and glittered in the long rays of the afternoon sunshine.

The scene was extraordinarily peaceful.

Stephen Dartrey for the first few minutes certainly justified his reputation for taciturnity.