32 A DELECTABLE STKAxND 



had not sought him in order to rebuke him, 

 for she had given up both complaining and 

 correction ; she had come solely to satisfy herself 

 that he was safe. In a way she rejoiced in 

 his independence, knowing that the time was 

 fast approaching when he would have to fend 

 for himself. 



And because the moment of separation 

 was imminent, she led him and his sister that 

 very night to the spot beloved above all others 

 by the hares of the Land's End, the dunes of 

 Sennen and the long strand of Whitesand 

 Bay. She took a bee-line from the Carn 

 and, leading at a good pace, soon reached her 

 destination, where the leverets, pleased by the 

 feel of the sand under their pads, hopped and 

 skipped like lambs, or like runners in an arena 

 with dunes for spectators and weaves to applaud, 

 galloped after their fleet-footed mother with the 

 speed of the wind. Their disappearance into the 

 gloom and sudden reappearance made them seem 

 quite uncanny on that uncanny foreshore, 

 haunted, if tradition be true, by drowned sailors 

 who hail one another across the beach. The 

 surge beat on the shore, the swell boomed in 

 the near caves, the breeze stirred the rushes 

 tufting the dunes : except for these the hares 

 were alone ; but the light gleamed across the 



