Sometimes, indeed, the fog did vary in intensity.  A current of wind seemed to sweep through it, and then they could distinguish the lights which the steamer was now burning at the mast head, and guess how far distant that still was.  But these lights seemed at last to be almost close at hand; and the boat, which had been at first so much before the steamer, ought to be quite near also.  It might be even now passing the place where they were, on its way to the village at the further end of the island.

Mr. Strafford reminded Mrs. Costello of this, and proposed that they should start on their return.

“If we delay much longer,” he said, “it will be quite dark, and besides, the paths are getting every moment more choked up.”

She rose instantly.

“I beg your pardon,” she said, “I ought to have thought;” but still, as she fastened her cloak, she continued to keep her eyes fixed upon the veil of fog which hung between her and the river.

Mr. Strafford and Lucia both stopped to say a few words to Sunflower, who was still busy with her cakes, but Mrs. Costello never ceased to look out until she was obliged to follow the others from the house.  The air was bitterly cold; and, hastened by storm and mist, the night was coming on fast.  They paused for a moment outside the wicket; and Mrs. Costello, looking at Mr. Strafford with a consciousness that her wish was foolish and unreasonable, said—­

“I should like to go down quite to the shore, just for a moment, to try if I can see anything.”

He turned instantly and walked with her to the very extremity of the little point, Lucia following.

They stood exactly on the spot where she had landed as a bride, and looked out into the darkness.  Suddenly she grasped Mr. Strafford’s arm.

“Listen!” she said, “there are oars close by.”

“Impossible,” he answered.  “See, the steamer’s lights are just there opposite us.  It must be turning round to go into Claremont.”

But she bent her head forward listening.  For even through the beat of the paddles, which she could now distinguish plainly, it still seemed that she heard the sound of oars, and she thought,

“They have given up trying to use their sails, and taken to rowing.”

Suddenly a current of wind passing along the surface of the water lifted the fog.  Just to their right, towering high in the air and holding a swift, steady course, came the steamer; but in front of it, scarcely a dozen yards from its huge bulk, lay the little boat.  In that moment, as the fog rose and showed the danger, a single cry of terror burst from the boatmen and from those on shore.  Instantly afterwards a shout was heard on board the steamer, and the engines were reversed; but the space was awfully small, and the monster, carried by the strong current, bore on still.  Lucia hid her face; Mrs. Costello, still leaning forward, tightened her grasp on the arm that supported her.  Mr. Strafford unconsciously spoke aloud,