Foes

the Kelpie's Pool, now came down the glen. Mother Binning was

ings die and all things live.

he took all the news he could bring

house and

el

will she marry? There's Abercr

. The one she

l ye be marry

ry, Mother. I would ma

ngle! Do ye love th

he truth, at times I think she's just a wraith! And at ti

e to

exander, rising, "as I feel th

s by which they ken the fule. I was ne'er afraid of f

th a manifold sound. Here was the curtain of brier masking the cave that he had shared with Ian. He drew it aside and entered. So much smaller was the place than it had seemed in boyhood! Twice since they came to be men had he been here

wild bees went from flower to flower. The sky was all sapphire, the air a perfumed ocean. So beautiful rang the spring that it was like a bell in the heart, in the blood. The laird of Glenfernie, coming to a great natural chair of sun-warmed rock, sat down to listen. All was of a sweetness, poignant, intense. But in the very act of recognizing this, there came upon him an old mood of melancholy, an inner mist and chill, a gray la

its thousand store of beauties. Its infinite number of touches brought at last response. The vague crying

ay. The stream grew broad and tranquil, with grassy shores overhung by green boughs. Here and there the bank extended into the flood a little grassy cape edged with violets. Alexander, following the spiral of the path, came upon the view o

ifully placed on a round, smooth throat. With a wide forehead, with great width between the eyes, the face tapered to a small round chin. The mouth and under the eyes smiled in a thousand different ways. The beauty that was there was subtle, not discoverable by every one.-The girl settled back upon the grass beneath th

lass met ow

se-red, but the

air and the mi

the other gaed

lver

is Wish all

h pen, and with

nd he met on a

o the other ga

bon

a man and sai

ds, clear flow

e two worlds

the other gaed

den b

played that faint, unapproachable, glamouring smile. Her hands touched the grass to either side h

e about that the winds of pain had increased upon the winds of pleasure. The mind closed the door of the palace and the nature inclined to turn from it. It was there, but a

The palace stood, shining like home, and it was he who was afar, in the mist and the wood, and the web

e hand was in the glove, the statue in the niche, the bow upon the string, the spark i

thorn, heard steps down the glen path, and turned her eyes to see the young laird moving between the birch stems. No

ernie, it's

fairy country and s

are the broad seas around, and I know if I came here by night I should find the Good People before me!

at, too? Do you go

ot here. She's in Aberdeen now,

t seen you

ay ill. One evening at sunset Mr. Ia

after sunset. It mu

nds-you, too-and went around the ash-tree as though it were a May-pole. We changed hands, one with another, and danced upon the green. Then you and he got upon your horses and rode away. He was riding the white mare Fatima. But oh,"

of t

ool." Elspeth's eyes enlarged and darkened. "The next morn w

ce-thrice in ten years. How idl

hat you have been to world's end

l that to find world's

what disquietedly, somewhat questioningly, at this new laird. Glenfer

not peril all-with ha

of country news. She met him with this an

r, "manages so well th

'll never grow wealthy outside!

magician with a sword-with a great, evil, written-upon crees

d asked it with so straight a simplici

"Robin is a fairy man," she said. "He has ower little of struggle

he thought, but still

from beneath the blooming tree. "I

r-set cape. The laird of Gle

e here when you wish? You walk abou

done. Gilian and I

, he moved with a practised, habitual ease, as far as might be from any savor of clumsiness. He had magnetism, and to-day

rd, ever since she was a bairn, that continual comment, like a little prattling burn running winter and summer through the dale. So she knew much that was true of Alexander Jardine, but likewise entertained a sufficient amount of misapprehension and romancing. Out of it all came, however, for the dale, and for the women at White Farm who listened to the burn's voice, a sense of trustworthiness. Elspeth, walking by Glenfernie, felt kindness for him. If, also, there ran a tremor of feeling that it was very fair to

eek for every one; she was come so far without mating because she had snow in her heart! The palace gleamed, the palace shone. All the music of earth-o