The days were growing shorter and colder, and Algy knew that the long Highland autumn had begun. Soon the leaves would turn and fall, but for the moment they were still green. So Algy made himself comfortable on the tangled mass of clematis under his favourite tree, and remembered a poem by Robert Bridges, as he watched the sky darkening over:

          The evening darkens over
          After a day so bright
          The windcapt waves discover
          That wild will be the night.
          There’s sound of distant thunder.

          The latest sea-birds hover
          Along the cliff’s sheer height;
          As in the memory wander
          Last flutterings of delight,
          White wings lost on the white.

          There’s not a ship in sight;
          And as the sun goes under
          Thick clouds conspire to cover
          The moon that should rise yonder.
          Thou art alone, fond lover.

[Algy is quoting The Evening Darkens Over by the British Victorian poet Robert Bridges.]