Stella Fregelius: A Tale of Three Destinies

looking at them, and the ceaseless gale piping in their ears. Long ago they had lost sight of land; even the tall church towers built by our ancestors as beacons on this stormy coast

ir own affairs to see the little craft tossing hither and thith

d reflective disposition. Thus it came about that they survived, when others, less skilful, might have drowned. Sometimes they ran before the seas; sometimes they got up a few square feet of sail

indeed, had it not been for these they would have perished. Most happily, also, with the sun the wind dropped, although for hours the sea remained dangerously high. Now wet and cold we

it got round to the northeast, enough of it to moderate the sea considerably, and to enable them to put the boat about and go before it with a closely reefed sail. Now, indeed, they were bitterly cold, and longed even for t

heir little stretch of sail. Sleep they could not, for that icy breath bit into their marrow, and of this Morris was glad, since he did not dare relax his watch for an

t five years in Denmark, whither her father came to visit her every summer. Most of this time she passed at a school in Copenhagen, going for her holidays to stay with her grandmother, who was the widow of a small landowner of noble family, and lived in an ancient, dilapidated house in some remote village. At length the grandmother died, leaving t

thers or sisters

flesh with cold, he felt

a sister, my twin, but she died when we were seventeen. This was the most d

understand. Wha

people. What Mr. Tomley said you were, Mr. Monk, a mystic and a dreamer of

rable as they were to intimacy and confidences, it seemed impertinent to him to

your time up there

practising with my violin playing and singing; and during the long winters in

as," he said, and after this, under pressure of t

quall or other emergency, in their numbed condition it was doubtful whether they could have found enough strength to do what might be necessary to save themselves. Th

" asked Stella, af

t two hours," he said, in a vo

lder. Morris put one arm round her waist to save her from slipping into the water at the bottom of the boat, making shift to steer with the other. Thus, for a while th

e, lifted her head

in this cold and wet. You

ry; it is hard to go with so much

. She will suffer, but soon she will be with you again, where everything is u

it comes to that, maybe God will give her strength

to a whisper,-"the dawn is always

slept heavily; nor, although he knew that such slumbers a

nd now, he was sure of it, the east grew ashen. He waited awhile, for the November dawn is slow in breaking, then looked again. Heaven be thanked! the cold wind had driven away the clouds, and there, upon the edge of the horizon, peeped up the fiery circle of the sun, throwing long rays of sickly yellow across the grey, troubled surface of

eserted fane, which, having been built upon a breast of rising ground, still remained, awaiting its destruction by the slow sap of the advancing ocean. Even now, at times of very high tide, the sea closed in behind, cutting the fabric off from the mainla

the Dead Church, just where the last rood of graveyard met the sand, upon which he could beach the boat safely even in worse weather.

ying thing. Fearing lest the back-wash should suck them off into the surf again, he rolled himself into the water, for jump he could not; indeed, it was as much as he could do to stand. With a last ef

?" he

and she broke off suddenly, adding: "But it was a

I will make the boat secure. She has served us a g

h numbed hands he managed to lift the litt

send to fetch her; or, if not, it can't be helped. Come on, Miss Fregelius, b

aw that it was useless to go to the cost of repairing the nave, they had bricked in the chancel, and to within the last twenty years continued to use it as a

ook in there

nt did not strike Morris as appropriate

d like to look now, while I re

e altar, at the eastern window, of which part was filled with ancient coloured glass and part with cheap glazed panes; at the

ought that I was standing in such a spot in a fearful gale, and that the

s talk were uncanny, "do you think this an occasion to explore ruins and relate nightmares?" Then he added, "

k," she answered humbly as, arm-in-arm, for she nee

he altar. Wet, dishevelled, half-frozen, they two were the bride-groom and the bride, and the bride was a seer of visions, and the bridegroom was

le plough-lands, cold-looking, suggesting dangers and labour, but wholesome all of them, and good to the eye of man. Only why di

asked Stella after a w

ere your father lies. Now it is

er strength w

k, it will warm you," he u

couple, they stumbled up the steps into the porch, where Morris rang the bell, for the door was locked. The time seemed an age, but at last steps were heard, the door

when he saw them,

young idiot," said Morr

e, and Morris stood in the study waiting for Stella, who h

her father's room, Morris's first act that morning on reaching home was to take a bath as hot as he could bear. Then he dra

ned, don't believe it. Have arrive

red after Mr. Fregelius and Stella. Having learned that they were both going

heard the housemaid's voice say, "This way please, Miss," and Stella came in. She wore a plain white dress that seemed to fit her very well, though where she got it from he never discovered, and her luxuriant hair was twisted up into a simple knot. On the bosom of her dres

se-haired Valkyrie whom he had seen singing at daybreak upon the prow of the sinking ship,

ing Stella had this curious power of di

n Cleopatra would have looked dreadful

recovered?

horrid of the sort. The remedies and that walk stopped it. But my feet are peeling from being so

and for the second time tha

is as he surveyed the great refectory in which they two

should, anything quite usual wou

d heard what he had already learned from the doct

spare a few minutes after dinner, and are not

little nervously, for he scente

onfidences since those who stand beneath his wings no longer care to hide their hearts. The reserves which so largely direct our lives are lifted, their necessity is past, and in the face of the last act of Nature, Nature asserts her

out certain details, alleging them to be Elizabethan work, to which age they had been credited for generations, whereon she suggested and, indeed, proved, that some of them dated from the earlier yea

aved. Why did you pass a night at sea in this weather? Is it a riddle? Grie

aster had gone out to fish, taking his breakfast with him. Later, on his non-appearance, he amended this statement, suggesting out of the depths of a fertile imagination, that he had sailed down to Northwold, where he meant to pass the night. Therefore, alth

spare. This cold neglect of events which had seemed to him so important reacted upon Morris, who, now that he had got over his chill and fatigue, saw them in their proper proportions. A little adventure

Ten minutes later, while Morris sat sipping a glass of claret, the nurse came down to tell him that Mr. Fregelius would like to see him if he we

w falling on her white-draped form and pale, uncommon face, sat Stella. As he entered sh

Monk, the gentleman who saved m

uld stir nothing else, for his right thigh was in splints beneath a coffer-lik

humanity that is lacking from the hearts of those rude wretch

and the yellowish skin of the outstretched arm. Here before him, he felt, lay a man whose personality it was not easy to define, one who might

d some wandering words of yours, with results for whi

ed you with that impulse, and may e

peak, but changed her mind and

ntly; "that your daughter is still alive is my