The four men; a farrago . un, straight over the flatwhere the line against the sky is highest, thehills I saw were the hills of home. All we four stood upon that height in therain that did not hide the lights upon thefields below and beyond us, and we saw whiteand glinting in the water meadows the riverArun, which we had come so many miles tosee; for that earlier happening of ours uponhis rising place and his springs in the forest,did not break our pilgrimage. Our businessnow was to see Arun in his strength, in thatplace where he is already full of the salt seatide, and where he rolls so power
The four men; a farrago . un, straight over the flatwhere the line against the sky is highest, thehills I saw were the hills of home. All we four stood upon that height in therain that did not hide the lights upon thefields below and beyond us, and we saw whiteand glinting in the water meadows the riverArun, which we had come so many miles tosee; for that earlier happening of ours uponhis rising place and his springs in the forest,did not break our pilgrimage. Our businessnow was to see Arun in his strength, in thatplace where he is already full of the salt seatide, and where he rolls so powerful a waterunder the Bridge and by Houghton Pit andall round by Stoke Woods and so to Arxmdeland to the sea. Then we looked at that river a little while^and blessed it, and felt each of us within and GRIZZLEBEARD TELLS 213 deeply the exaltation of return, the rain stillfalling on us as we went. We came at lastpast the great chalk pit to the railway, and tothe Bridge Inn which lies just on this side ofthe crossing of When wehad all fouri;{, come in out of the rain into Mr. Dukesparlour at the Bridge Inn, andwhen we had ordered beer andhad begun to dry ourselves atthe fire, the Sailor said:Come, Grizzlebeard, wepromised to tell the stories of oxirfirst loves when we came to Arun;and as you are much the oldest of us do you?in. 214 THE STORY OF With all my heart, said Grizzlebeard,for, as you know, I am not one of thosebelated heretics who hold such things sacred,believing as I do that that only is sacred whichattaches directly to the Faith. . Never-theless ... to remember that great time,and how securely I was held, and in what a portlay the vessel of my soul, I do feel upon mesomething that should silence a man. . By what moorings were you held?said I. By three, he answered. Her eyelids,her voice, and her name. Then after a littlepause he went on: She was past her youth. Her twenty-fifthyear was upon her. Her father and her motherwere dead. She was of great wealth. She had
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