On either side of him flowed a narrow dike filled with salt-water.

Beyond stretched the flat marshland, its mossy turf leavened with cracks and creeks of all widths, filled also with sea-slime and sea-water.

A slight grey mist rested upon the more distant parts of the wilderness which he was crossing, a mist which seemed to be blown in from the sea in little puffs, resting for a time upon the earth, and then drifting up and fading away like soap bubbles.
More than once where the dikes had overflown he was compelled to change his course, but he arrived at last at the little ridge of pebbled beach bordering the sea.

Straight ahead of him now was that strange-looking building towards which he had all the time been directing his footsteps.
As he approached it, his forehead slightly contracted.

There was ample confirmation before him of the truth of his fellow-passenger's words.
The place, left to itself for so many years, without any attention from its actual owner, was neither deserted nor in ruins.