The White People

I took them out upon the terrace the sun was reddening the moor, and even the rough, gray towers of the castle were stained rose-color. There was that lovely

ee chairs in a little group together and looked ou

id, looking slowly-ro

her lovely, lovely voice.

was part of me and I a part of it. The climbing moon was trembling with beauty. Tende

, and yet that he should know that at any moment the great change might come and he might awaken somewhere else, in quite another place. If he had been like other men and I had been like other girls, I suppose that after that night when I heard the truth I should have been plunged into the darkest woe and have almost sobbed myself to

way from him. He was rather pale that evening, but there seemed to be a light behind his pallor, and his e

forward and pointed to a part of the moor where there was an

when Wee Brown Elspeth was

swered. "Will you take me there to-morrow

likely to be there then, as it was that day. It is so myste

lse!" he said. "Yes, le

hind a book on a high shelf in the library. Angus said he had hidden it there because it was a savage story he did not wish me to read. It was the history of the feud between Ian Red Hand and

I heard it only a few days before w

me recall

ted when I told you ab

cendant who had inherited her name," he answered, a tr

d rubbed it unconsciously. I could

faint memory came back to me. "Mine," I stammered-"mine-how strange!-had a great stain on the embroideries of her dress. She looked at i

I made a sudden effort to come back. I ceased rubbi

I said. "Of course, they must have known. I wond

involuntarily turned toward him-suc

ep I remember there floated through my mind a vague recollection of what Angus had said to me of asking his advice about something; and I

of white, swathing mist. Only here and there dark fir-trees showed themselves above it, and now and then the whitenes

ike. I had never known that there could be such a feeling of companionship in the world. It would not have been necessary for us to talk at all if we had felt silent. We should have bee

her and broom. On the moor the mist grew thicker, and if I had not so well known the path we might have lost ourselves in it. Also I knew by heart certain little streams that rushed and m

or MacNairn said to me. His voice was rather like his mot

e might be some of those the mist hi

fraid if you met on

that it was only like myself, and, if I coul

o know?" he asked m

onders. I don't mean angels with harps and crowns, but beauty such as we see now; only seeing it without burdens of fears before and b

threw my arms out wide. I drew i

reeness, the light, splendid

he repeated. "Ye

this moor a thousand times and seen loveliness which made me tremble. One's soul could want no more in

he freeness,"

on us. The mist wavered and sometimes lifted before us, and opened up mystic vistas to veil them a

fine, his shoulders so broad and splendid! How could it be! How could it be! As he tramped beside me he was thinking deeply, and he knew he need not talk to me. That made me

ich led him far. I knew that, though I did not know what they were. When we reached the golden blaze we had seen the evening be

was what it seemed to me-that he came back. He stood quite still a moment and looked about him, and then

lendid-remembering all the ages of dark, unknowing dread, of horror of some black, aimless plunge, and sud

nderstood then. Yes, yes! That would be it. Rememberi

ght returning mist-wraiths closing again over it, when I heard a sound far away and h

ious it is, this opening and closing! I like it m

trapped basket Jean had made ready for us. He shook the mist drops from o

pipes before," I said. "What is a p

away. I don't hear it," he said.

not a bird. It's the pipes, and playing s

e begin again much nearer, and the piper wa

e pipes. It was the piper, and almost at once I knew him, because it was actually my own Feargus, stepping proudly through the heather with his step like a stag on the hills. His head was hel

" I cried

aced man, but this smile had a kind of startling triumph in it. He certainly heard me, for he whipped off his bonnet in a

. When I turned to speak in my surprise

ass by in such a hurry without answering? He must have been to a wedding

look?" Mr. M

look ill." I laughed again. "I'm laughing becaus

it was Fearg

the least like Feargus. Di

the mist," was his answer. "But he certainly was no

n. He did not let it go when he sat down by my side. He held it in his own large, handsome one, lookin

he said. "Beloved, s

nge!" I sa

k God!" he

mother had told me-about what we three might have been to one another. I trembled with h

. "My mother told you, Ysobel-

es

love you?" he

ould have been heaven if we could alwa

ough tweed of his jacket and whispering: "I should have belonged to you two, heart and body and soul. I

happened?"

othing but tender joy. I think you CAN.

side.'" And our two faces, damp with