The Argosy — page 91: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HOW LORD ROLAND MET HIS WIFE. IG NE summer evening, many years ago, a young man of five-and- twenty, dark, tall, and handsome, dressed and equipped as a tourist—a class much rarer in those days than ours—was wandering along the wildest coast of Cornwall. Hecarried in his hand a stick, and a fishing-basket with a lid suspended by a strap across his shoulders. The scenery was singularly wild and lonely. A reach of shelving shore ran, straight and narrow, between the sea and the great cliffs, the dark and rugged walls of which seemed shut against the world. The sun was sinking, and a rosy radiance slept upon the sand, upon the small salt sparkling pools, and upon the endless line of foamy lustre, where the ripple was for ever breaking with a sound like elfin thunder. Lord Roland Raven walked at leisure. He had some miles to traverse before he reached the opening in the cliffs which would conduct him to the village where he meant to pass the night; but the long summer evening was before him, and he was able to enjoy its beauty without need of haste. All at once he stopped in some surprise ; his eyes were fixed upon a point on the cliff-side. He had believed that he was far from any human habitation; yet there a solitary building, like a tower, was - perched on a height among the rocks that overhung the sea. A steep and rocky path wound upwards to it from the shore. ‘There was something in its singular position and appearance that touched his curiosity. It was, no doubt, a ruin; but even asa ruin it might be worth a visit. He determined to ascend. He had been already walking for some days, but hitherto he had met with no adventure, and certainly he had no idea that one was now before him. As he turned aside towards the rocky pathway, no thought was in his mind, no shade of a presentiment, that a strange, a wildly strange experience was ready to befall him. And yet so it was to be. The ascent was not so rugged as it looked. The path wound to and fro among the crags, and for some time the tower above him became lost to sight. He was at the top of the ascent before he knew it; a sudden turning brought him out upon the level space on which the tower was built. He stopped in wonder at the scene before him. The tower was ancient, grey, and tempest-beaten ; but it was no ruin. It stood amidst a piece of garden-ground, in which sea-asters thrift, and wild sea-lavender bloomed luxuriantly together. Its lower CONTICLIOOKS. EC) m | ‘