Albinia laughed, but at that moment the sounds of the hunt again occupied them, and all were interpreted by Ulick with the keenest interest, but he would not run away again, though she exhorted him not to regard her.  Presently it swept on out of hearing, and by-and-bye they reached the summit of the hill, and looked forth on the dark pine plantations on the opposite undulation, standing out in black relief against a sky golden with a pale, pure, pearly November sunset, a ‘daffodil sky’ flecked with tiny fleeces of soft bright-yellow light, reminding Albinia of Fouque’s beautiful dream of Aslauga’s golden hair showing the gates of Heaven to her devoted knight.  She looked for her companion’s sympathy in her admiration, but the woods seemed to oppress him, and his panting sigh showed how real a thing was he-men.

‘Oh! my poor sun!’ he broke out, ’I pity you for having to go down before your time into these black, stifling woods that rise up to smother you like giants—­and not into your own broad, cool Atlantic, laughing up your own sparkles of light.’

‘We inland people can hardly appreciate your longing for space.’

‘It’s a very prison,’ said Ulick; ’the horizon is choked all round, and one can’t breathe in these staid stiff hedges and enclosures!’ And he threw out his arms and flapped them over his breast with a gesture of constraint.

‘You seem no friend to cultivation.’

’Why, your meadows would be pretty things if they were a little greener,’ said Ulick; ’but one gets tired of them, and of those straight lines of ploughed field.  There’s no sense of liberty; it is like the man whose prison walls closed in upon him!’ And he gave another weary sigh, his step lost elasticity, and he moved on heavily.

‘You are tired; I have brought you too far.’

‘Tired by a bit of a step like this?’ cried the boy, disdainfully, as he straightened himself, and resumed his brisk tread.  But it did not last.

‘I had forgotten that you had not been well,’ she said.

‘Pshaw!’ muttered Ulick; then resumed, ’Aye, Mr. Kendal brought in the doctor upon me—­very kind of him—­but I do assure you ’tis nothing but home sickness; I was nearly as bad when I went to St. Columba, but I got over it then, and I will again!’

‘It may be so in part,’ said Albinia, kindly; ’but let me be impertinent, Ulick, for my sister Winifred told me to look after you; surely you give it every provocation.  Such a change of habits is enough to make any one ill.  Should you not ask your uncle for a holiday, and go home for a little while?’

‘Don’t name it, I beg of you,’ cried the poor lad in an agitated voice, ’it would only bring it all over again!  I’ve promised my mother to do my part, and with His help I will!  Let the columns run out to all eternity, and the figures crook themselves as spitefully as they will, I’ve vowed to myself not to stir till I’ve got the better of the villains!’