Anyone who is familiar with the neighbourhood of Melton knows that the Southampton road takes a sharp turn to the right at the second milestone on leaving the Forest. We had pushed our way through the fallen leaves and rounded the bend, when I noticed a figure seated on the milestone. The back was turned to us, and the head was bowed as though in sleep.
Loring paused to inhale the sweet, heavy air of the pine woods.
"Humpty Dumpty will have a great fall," he remarked, "if he goes to sleep on milestones."
On the ground by the side of the stone lay a straw hat such as--for no conceivable reason--we were compelled to wear in all weathers. Loring moved forward and then stopped suddenly.
"Oh, my Lord!" he exclaimed. "As if we hadn't thrashed the fellow till we were tired of it!"
I took a second look. The back was bowed till the shoulder-blades stood out in two sharp points, the chin rested on the knees and two thin hands were clasped round two thinner ankles. The attitude was unmistakable, even if I had not recognized the silky black hair floating back from the forehead as the wind blew softly inland from the sea. We walked on and stopped beside him; his eyes were gazing far out over the distant Channel, and he failed to observe our approach.
"She's a Royal Mail boat. Lisbon, Gib., Teneriffe, B.A., Rio." I could hardly see the ship, but a wreathing spiral of smoke, mingling with the low clouds, gave me her position. "There's been a home-bound Orient, and two P. and O.'s, and a D.O.A., oh, and one British India. Two a minute, and steaming, steaming to the uttermost parts of the earth."
He spoke in a dreamy, sing-song voice, and his soul was five thousand miles from Melton.
"Is this a usual pitch of yours?" Loring asked.
"It is. When a man wants to think and be alone with no one but his own self by.... There's days you can smell the sea, and days when the air's so clean and clear you could put out your hand and touch one of the little ships...." His voice sank almost to a whisper, " ... to show the love you have for her, and the lonely, cold sea she's ploughing up into white foam."
Loring looked at me in amazement and shook his head helplessly. To him, who had at that time never set foot in Ireland, the soft and unexpected Irish intonation of O'Rane's voice conveyed nothing; he was as yet unacquainted with the Celtic luxuriance of misery.