The spot was seldom visited by a pedestrian, except perhaps in the

shooting season. The rarity of human intrusion was evidenced by the

mazes of rabbit-runs, the feathers of shy birds, the exuviae of reptiles;

as also by the well-worn paths of squirrels down the sides of trunks, and

thence horizontally away. The fact of the plantation being an island in

the midst of an arable plain sufficiently accounted for this lack of

visitors. Few unaccustomed to such places can be aware of the insulating

effect of ploughed ground, when no necessity compels people to traverse

it. This rotund hill of trees and brambles, standing in the centre of a

ploughed field of some ninety or a hundred acres, was probably visited

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less frequently than a rock would have been visited in a lake of equal

extent.

She walked round the column to the other side, where she found the door

through which the interior was reached. The paint, if it had ever had

any, was all washed from the wood, and down the decaying surface of the

boards liquid rust from the nails and hinges had run in red stains.

Over the door was a stone tablet, bearing, apparently, letters or words; but

the inscription, whatever it was, had been smoothed over with a plaster

of lichen.

Here stood this aspiring piece of masonry, erected as the most

conspicuous and ineffaceable reminder of a man that could be thought of;

and yet the whole aspect of the memorial betokened forgetfulness.

Probably not a dozen people within the district knew the name of the

person commemorated, while perhaps not a soul remembered whether the

column were hollow or solid, whether with or without a tablet explaining

its date and purpose. She herself had lived within a mile of it for the

last five years, and had never come near it till now.

She hesitated to ascend alone, but finding that the door was not fastened

she pushed it open with her foot, and entered. A scrap of writing-paper

lay within, and arrested her attention by its freshness. Some human

being, then, knew the spot, despite her surmises. But as the paper had

nothing on it no clue was afforded; yet feeling herself the proprietor of

the column and of all around it her self-assertiveness was sufficient to

lead her on. The staircase was lighted by slits in the wall, and there

was no difficulty in reaching the top, the steps being quite unworn.

The trap-door leading on to the roof was open, and on looking through it an

interesting spectacle met her eye.

A youth was sitting on a stool in the centre of the lead flat which

formed the summit of the column, his eye being applied to the end of a

large telescope that stood before him on a tripod. This sort of presence

was unexpected, and the lady started back into the shade of the opening.

The only effect produced upon him by her footfall was an impatient wave

of the hand, which he did without removing his eye from the instrument,

as if to forbid her to interrupt him.




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