Jailer Laval was homesick, and innocent of a suspicion of what was passing in the minds of his guests; he was therefore free in making his complaints, and acknowledged that he was not fit to keep the prison,—­it required a man of more nerve than he had.  The dread of the place which his poor wife had entertained seemed to have taken possession of him since her death.  All the arguments which he once used, in the endeavor to bolster her courage, he had now forgotten.  He was very cautious when he began to speak of the prisoner, and tried to divert Adolphus from the point by saying that he would much prefer a house full of convicts to one so empty as this.  There was at least something like society in that, and something to do.

Adolphus, in spite of his discontent at hearing merely these deductions of experience, when his desire was to know something of Manuel, heard nothing of importance.  The speech of the jailer on this subject was not to be had.  His mind seemed to be wandering, except when his wife, or his native land, was referred to; then he brightened into speech, but never once into cheerfulness.  As he sat there in the middle of his chamber, he seemed to represent the genius of the place,—­and anything less enlivening or desirable in the way of human life could hardly be imagined.  Pauline looked at him and sighed.  She looked at Adolphus;—­a pang shot through her heart; the shadow of the man seemed to overshadow him.  Out of this place, where all appeared to be fast changing into “goblins damned”!

It was she who led the way; but, pausing in the court-yard, Elizabeth evinced still greater haste to be gone, for she ran on with fleet step, and a heart heavy with foreboding as to the result of this interview.  She was also impatient to get into the open sunlight, and did not rest in this progress she was making outward till she had come to the sea-shore.  Elizabeth Montier was in a state of dire perplexity just then, and if she had been asked whether she would really choose to effect the change proposed in their way of living, it would have been no easy matter for her to discover her mind.

By the sea-shore she sat down, and her father and mother followed slowly on.  They were not talking as they came.  But as they approached the beach, Adolphus could not resist the prospect before them.  Loud was the blast he blew upon his horn, nor did he cease playing until his music had restored him to a more natural mood than that in which the interview with Laval left him.  The prison was becoming a less startling image of desolate dreariness to him.  And Adolphus was the master-spirit in his family.  If he was gay, it was barely possible for his wife and child to be sad.  Of the prison not one word was spoken by either.  They had not revealed to each other their inmost mind when they went into Laval’s quarters; they did not reveal it when they came thence.  But as they strolled along the rocky shore, or returned homeward, they thought of little beside the prison and the prisoner.  As to Elizabeth, nothing required of her that she should urge the matter further.  She had neither heart nor courage for such urging.