The Unicorn Read Online Free PDF Page A

gentry’. His accent and his manner proclaimed him no subordinate, and Marian conjectured that he might be a relative or a family friend. Yet, if he lived here, what did he dot He was a big handsome man with a smooth fresh-complexioned powerful face and something of the mien of a soldier. He had a great deal of crinkly brown hair which grew in little flat circular curls a long way down his reddish weather-beaten neck. His brown eyes were rather consciously fine. He seemed in his early forties and was perhaps just thickening out of some early beauty. He now made a stouter, squarer impression, filled out yet muscular and not without grace. Marian transferred her gaze to his big hirsute hands upon the steering-wheel. She shivered for a moment. It occurred to her to wonder if there was a Mrs Scottow.
     
There are the cliffs.’
     
Marian had read about the great cliffs of black sandstone. In the hazy light they seemed brownish now, receding in a series of huge buttresses as far as eye could see. striated, perpendicular, immensely lofty, descending sheer into a boiling white surge. It was the sea here which seemed black, mingling with the foam like ink with cream.
     
‘They are wonderful,’ said Marian. She found the vast dark coastline repellent and frightening. She had never seen a land so out of sympathy with man.
     
‘They are said to be sublime,’ said Scottow. ‘Again I am no judge. I am too used to them.’
     
‘Are there good places to swim?’ said Marian. ‘I mean, can one get down to the sea?’
     
‘One can get down to the sea. But no one swims here.’
     
‘Why not?’
     
‘No one swims in this sea. It’s far too cold. And it is a sea that kills people.’
     
Marian, who was a strong swimmer, privately decided to swim all the same.
     
The descending sun was making a brilliance now upon the water and her eyes were dazzled. She looked inland, still unnervingly conscious of the silent boy behind her. The bare limestone desert receded, rising in clearly marked shelves to form low humpy plateaus which lay one behind the other like huge fossilized monsters. A few miserable reddish shrubs and little east-bent hazel trees clung to the rock, which the sun had turned to a pale gritty yellow.
     
‘It’s remarkable scenery, isn’t it?’ said Scottow. ‘Not everyone’s cup of tea, of course. But you should see those rocks in May and June. They’re absolutely covered with gentians. Even now there’s far more vegetation than appears at first sight. Weird little flowers you’ll find if you look, and carnivorous plants. And there are most curious caves and underground rivers. Are you interested in geology and in flowers and things? I see you’ve brought your field-glasses with you.’
     
‘I’m no geologist, I’m afraid. I thought I might do some bird-watching, though I don’t really know much about birds either.’
     
‘I know nothing about birds except the kind you shoot, but you can certainly see some rare ones around here. Ravens and golden eagles and such. I hope you’re fond of walking?’
     
‘Yes, very. I imagine one could soon get lost up there.”
     
There aren’t many landmarks, on the Scarren. There’s hardly anything upright except megaliths and dolmens. It’s a very ancient land.’
     
The road had turned inland and was winding between shallow shelves of rock. The uncertain tarmac was beginning to degenerate into a bumpy gravelly track. Scottow slowed down. There was something dark ahead which turned out to be a little group of donkeys. Among them were two baby donkeys scarcely bigger than fox terriers. The car nosed its way up to them and they shifted lazily upon their dainty feet. A weird cry followed after.
     
Marian took the occasion of the donkeys to turn and look at the boy behind her. He gave her a smile of singular sweetness, but she could not make out his face.
     
‘They’re nice little beasts,’ said Scottow, ‘but I wish they’d keep off the roads.