Would he do so? Of course he would; he would have gone to the end of the world if the Lily of Arrow Dale had asked him; so the three or four--for Floss was of the party--went on together. Up, up they went; now rounding great swelling shoulders of brown moorland, now in a hollow fording a baby-beck, swollen with the autumnal rains. Up, further up; now passing warily over a treacherous peat-bog, whereon flakes of white cotton-grass still flickered in the autumn wind, and now skirting the edge of a scar of precipitous rock. Up, up, until at last Mouse could go no farther, and Evelyn, leaving him with her squire, went on with Floss. Ten minutes’ hard walking brought her to the summit of the Edge, and then she turned round and faced the fresh breeze and the sunset. It was a glorious sight, that which met her view. The sun was low in the Western sky, which burned in hues of amber and pale yellow, which, as they ascended the heavens, changed into a tender green. In and over all this floated long crimson and purple cloudlets, tipped with flame. Afar off, a doubtful shimmer seemed to mark the Irish Sea. Below, the long, winding valley of the Arrow lay for the most part in shadow, while far above, on either side, the tops of the great hills reflected the sunset lights, and seemed to burn in answering tints of glory. At last, the sun sank into a bank of clouds, and a half-darkness shrouded the scene. It was then that a singular circumstance took place. Suddenly, through some rifts in the cloud-bank, unseen at the height on which the girl stood, the sun’s rays burst forth, and for a moment illumined the knoll and house of Holmcastle, and far above it, at the entrance of its solemn amphitheatre of hills, the Long Maen of Stanwick, the earliest known possession of her race. Then again the clouds rolled together with majestic movement, and darkness strode on apace. It is hard to describe the effect which this natural phenomenon had on the highly-strung and imaginative mind of Evelyn Manwaring. She immediately connected it with what a soberer judgment would have concluded it could have no connection--her belief, namely, that she saw her brother Wilfred’s name re-instated in the family pedigree. This may have been--perhaps it was, for it is hard to trace the secret connection between mind and matter--because she at that moment stood on the very spot where her lost brother had performed his proudest act of boyish prowess--the killing, namely, of the golden eagle which, as we have seen, was the favourite ornament of his room. Be that, however, as it may, Evelyn, for the first time since her last bereavement, felt a thrill of hope, almost of joy, and with lightened step she sprang down the steep descent, and speedily rejoined the young farmer and her pony. Needs not to say it was long after dark when she arrived at the Manor.