Christabel seated herself on the bank which he had selected for her accommodation, and Mr. Hamleigh placed himself a little lower, almost at her feet, her face turned seaward, his half towards her, as if that lily face, with its wild rose bloom, were even lovelier than the sunlit ocean in all its variety of colour. "It is a delicious spot," said Angus, "I wonder whether Tristan and Iseult ever came here! I can fancy the queen stealing away from the Court and Court foolery, and walking across the sunlit hills with her lover. It would be rather a long walk, and there might be a difficulty about getting back in time for supper; but one can picture them wandering by flowery fields, or by the cliffs above that everlasting sea, and coming here to rest and talk of their sorrow and their love. Can you not fancy her as Matthew Arnold paints her?-- "Let her have her youth again-- Let her be as she was then! Let her have her proud dark eyes, And her petulant, quick replies: Let her sweep her dazzling hand, With its gesture of command, And shake back her raven hair With the old imperious air. I have an idea that the Hibernian Iseult must have been a tartar, though Matthew Arnold glosses over her peccadilloes so pleasantly. I wonder whether she had a strong brogue, and a sneaking fondness for usquebaugh." "Please, don't make a joke of her," pleaded Christabel; "she is very real to me. I see her as a lovely lady--tall and royal-looking, dressed in long robes of flowered silk, fringed with gold. And Tristan----" "What of Tristan? Is his image as clear in your mind? How do you depict the doomed knight, born to suffer and to sin, destined to sorrow from the time of his forest-birth--motherless, beset with enemies, consumed by hopeless passion. I hope you feel sorry for Tristan?" "Who could help being sorry for him?" "Albeit he was a sinner? I assure you, in the old romance which you have not read--which you would hardly care to read--neither Tristan nor Iseult are spotless." "I have never thought of their wrong-doing. Their fate was so sad, and they loved each other so truly." "And, again, you can believe, perhaps--you who are so innocent and confiding--that a man who has sinned may forsake the old evil ways and lead a good life, until every stain of that bygone sin is purified. You can believe, as the Greeks believed, in atonement and purification." "I believe, as I hope all Christians do, that repentance can wash away sin." "Even the accusing memory of wrong-doing, and make a man's soul white and fair again? That is a beautiful creed." "I think the Gospel gives us warrant for believing as much--not as some of the Dissenters teach, that one effort of faith, an hour of prayer and ejaculation, can transform a murderer into a saint; but that earnest, sustained regret for wrong-doing, and a steady determination to live a better life----"