She would leave Castle Marleigh, never again to set eyes upon her father, and she hoped that during the little time she must yet remain there--a day, or two at most--she might be spared the ordeal of again meeting a parent for whom respect was dead, and who inspired her with just that feeling of horror she must have for any man who confessed himself a murderer and a thief.
She resolved to repair to London to a sister of her mother's, where for her dead mother's sake she would find a haven extended readily.
At eventide she came at last from her chamber.
She had need of air, need of the balm that nature alone can offer in solitude to poor wounded human souls.
It was a mild and sunny evening, worthy rather of August than of October, and aimlessly Mistress Cynthia wandered towards the cliffs overlooking Sheringham Hithe.

There she sate herself in sad dejection upon the grass, and gazed wistfully seaward, her mind straying now from the sorry theme that had held dominion in it, to the memories that very spot evoked.
It was there, sitting as she sat now, her eyes upon the shimmering waste of sea, and the gulls circling overhead, that she had awakened to the knowledge of her love for Crispin.

And so to him strayed now her thoughts, and to the fate her father had sent him to; and thus back again to her father and the evil he had wrought.

It is matter for conjecture whether her loathing for Gregory would have been as intense as it was, had another than Crispin Galliard been his victim.
Her life seemed at an end as she sat that October evening on the cliffs.
No single interest linked her to existence; nothing, it seemed, was left her to hope for till the end should come--and no doubt it would be long in coming, for time moves slowly when we wait.
Wistful she sat and thought, and every thought begat a sigh, and then of a sudden--surely her ears had tricked her, enslaved by her imagination--a crisp, metallic voice rang out close behind her.
"Why are we pensive, Mistress Cynthia ?" There was a catch in her breath as she turned her head.

Her cheeks took fire, and for a second were aflame.