Chapter 14

CHAPTER XIV A SUNRISE

A MONTH after this, on the evening of the 20th of August, Simon Ford
and Madge took leave, with all manner of good wishes, of four tourists,
who were setting forth from the cottage.

James Starr, Harry, and Jack Ryan were about to lead Nell's
steps over yet untrodden paths, and to show her the glories
of nature by a light to which she was as yet a stranger.
The excursion was to last for two days. James Starr, as well as Harry,
considered that during these eight and forty hours spent above ground,
the maiden would be able to see everything of which she must
have remained ignorant in the gloomy pit; all the varied aspects
of the globe, towns, plains, mountains, rivers, lakes, gulfs,
and seas would pass, panorama-like, before her eyes.

In that part of Scotland lying between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
nature would seem to have collected and set forth specimens
of every one of these terrestrial beauties. As to the heavens,
they would be spread abroad as over the whole earth, with their
changeful clouds, serene or veiled moon, their radiant sun,
and clustering stars. The expedition had been planned so as to
combine a view of all these things.

Simon and Madge would have been glad to go with Nell;
but they never left their cottage willingly, and could not make
up their minds to quit their subterranean home for a single day.

James Starr went as an observer and philosopher, curious to note,
from a psychological point of view, the novel impressions made upon Nell;
perhaps also with some hope of detecting a clue to the mysterious
events connected with her childhood. Harry, with a little trepidation,
asked himself whether it was not possible that this rapid initiation
into the things of the exterior world would change the maiden he had
known and loved hitherto into quite a different girl. As for Jack Ryan,
he was as joyous as a lark rising in the first beams of the sun.
He only trusted that his gayety would prove contagious, and enliven his
traveling companions, thus rewarding them for letting him join them.
Nell was pensive and silent.

James Starr had decided, very sensibly, to set off in the evening.
It would be very much better for the girl to pass gradually from
the darkness of night to the full light of day; and that would
in this way be managed, since between midnight and noon she
would experience the successive phases of shade and sunshine,
to which her sight had to get accustomed.

Just as they left the cottage, Nell took Harry's hand saying,
"Harry, is it really necessary for me to leave the mine at all,
even for these few days?"

"Yes, it is, Nell," replied the young man. "It is needful
for both of us."

"But, Harry," resumed