"Oh, you can't depend on Honnor," Lady Adela said. "She may have risen a
fish, or may have got hold of one. But if you want to know whether she
is likely to turn up, you might go out to that point, Mr. Moore, and
then you'll be able to see whether she is coming anywhere near the Bad
Step."
Willingly enough he went down through the scattered birch-trees to a
projecting point overlooking the river from a very considerable height;
and there, right below him, he discovered what it was they called the
Bad Step. The precipice on which he stood going sheer down into the
Aivron, the path along the stream left the banks some distance off, came
up to where he stood, and then descended again by a deep gorge probably
cut by water-power through the slaty rock. And even as he was regarding
this twilit chasm it suddenly appeared to him that there were two
figures away down there, crossing the burn at the foot; and then one of
them, in gray--unmistakably the fisher-maiden herself--began the ascent.
How she managed to obtain a footing he could not make out; for the path
was no path, but merely a zig-zag track on the surface of the loose
shingle--shingle so loose that he could see it yield to her every step,
while the debris rolled away down to the bed of the burn.
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