A light film over sea and sky, lifted only by fitful gusts of wind, seemed to have suddenly thickened until it became an opaque vault, narrowing in circumference as the wind increased.

The promontory behind her disappeared, as if swallowed up, the distance before her seemed to contract; the ocean at her side, the color of dull pewter, vanished in a sheet of slanting rain, and by the time she reached the house, half running, half carried along by the quartering force of the wind, a full gale was blowing.
It blew all the evening, reaching a climax and fury at past midnight that was remembered for many years along that coast.

In the midst of it they heard the booming of cannon, and then the voices of neighbors in the road.

"There was," said the voices, "a big steamer ashore just afore the house." They dressed quickly and ran out.
Hugging the edge of the copse to breathe and evade the fury of the wind, they struggled to the sands.

At first, looking out to sea, the girl saw nothing but foam.