CHAPTER LXXV
When Arthur got out of the gates of the Quinta Carr, he hurried to thehotel, with the intention of reading the letters Mildred had givenhim, and, passing through the dining-room, seated himself upon the"stoep" which overlooked the garden in order to do so. At this time ofyear it was, generally speaking, a quiet place enough; but on thisparticular day scarcely had Arthur taken the letter from his pocket,and--having placed the ring that it contained upon his tremblingfinger, and repudiating the statement, marked "to be read first," onaccount of its business-like appearance--glanced at the two firstlines of Angela's own letter, when the sound of hurrying feet and manychattering voices reminded him that he could expect no peace anywherein the neighbourhood of the hotel. The second English mail was in, andall the crowd of passengers, who were at this time pouring out to theCape to escape the English winter, had come, rejoicing, ashore, toeat, drink, be merry, and buy parrots and wicker chairs while thevessel coaled.
He groaned and fled, in his hurry leaving the statement on the benchon which he was seated.
Some half-mile or so away, to the left of the town, where the sea hadencroached a little upon the shore of the island, there was a nook ofpeculiar loveliness. Here the giant hand of Nature had cleft a ravinein the mountains that make Madeira, down which a crystal streamlettrickled to the patch of yellow sand that edged the sea. Its bankssloped like a natural terrace, and were clothed with masses ofmaidenhair ferns interwoven with feathery grasses, whilst up aboveamong the rocks grew aloes and every sort of flowering shrub.
Behind, clothed in forest, lay the mass of mountains, varied by therich green of the vine-clad valleys, and in front heaved the endlessocean, broken only by one lonely rock that stood grimly out againstthe purpling glories of the evening sky. This spot Arthur haddiscovered in the course of his rambles with Mildred, and it was herethat he bent his steps to be alone to read his letters. Scarcely hadhe reached the place, however, when he discovered, to his intensevexation, that he had left the enclosure in Angela's letter upon theverandah at the hotel. But, luckily, it chanced that, within a fewyards of the spot where he had seated himself, there was a native boycutting walking-sticks from the scrub. He called to him in Portuguese,of which he had learnt a little, and, writing something on a card,told him to take it to the manager of the hotel, and to bring backwhat he would give him. Delighted at the chance of earning sixpence,the boy started at a run, and at last he was able to begin to read hisletter.