In
everything, both great and small, he recognised his mother's
designs and taste. A vast amount of work, unknown to him, an
endless interchange of letters and a great expenditure of money.
How new and bright everything looked! The rooms differed as much
from what they had been, as she had endeavoured to make Rafael's
life from the one that had been led in them.
They two had a comfortable meal together after all, followed by a
quiet walk along the shore. The wide waters of the bay gleamed
softly, and the gentle ripple took up its old story again while
the summer night sank gently down upon them.
Early the next morning Rafael was out rowing in the bay, the play-
ground of his childhood. Notwithstanding the shorn and sunken
aspect of the hills, his delight at being there again was
indescribable. Indescribable because of the loneliness and
stillness: no one came to disturb him. After having lived for many
years in large towns, to find oneself alone in a Norwegian bay is
like leaving a noisy market-place at midday and passing into a
high vaulted church where no sound penetrates from without, and
where only one's own footstep breaks the silence.
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