Elspeth took hold of the lapels of his poor jacket----
"Do you really mean it: do you really mean it?" she asked, earnestly. "Think of what I am, as Sweetlips told you,--the daughter of Michael Gowrie, who was left in pawn by him, to be a drudge at the 'Marsh Inn.'"
"You are a lady,--the lady of my love, and the sweetest woman in the wide world."
"Well," said Rachel, staring at Elspeth, while this was being whispered into her ears, "if she don't look reglar, slap up, pretty!"
It was true. A lovely pink blush was over-spreading the pale face of the girl, a smile of ecstasy parted her lips to show perfectly white teeth, and the whole worn weary body seemed to be suddenly rejuvenated by the power of the loving word. It was like the sun on a gloomy day emerging from behind a cloud,--a promise of that hidden loveliness which would reveal itself when she became the wife of the man she had dared so much to save.
Mrs. Kind beckoned to the lovers who wooed so boldly in her presence and smiled.
"Y' don't know that I'm a gipsy of sorts," she said, taking Herries' hand. "Let me read the lines, doctor. I've read Elspeth's before, ain't I, ducky? Lor, I read misery and sorrow, and folks as wished her harm,--all of 'em to skip when the man came."
"The man?" queried Angus, submitting his palm to the sibyl.
"You're the man. I knew it the moment I saw her blushing like a true maid. Aye, here's evil days behind you," she traced the lines with a lean brown finger, "evil folk too, and hardship by land and sea. See the crosses, deary, in the early part of life,--you've had 'em, oh my gentleman, what a time you've had!"
"Jonah's luck," said Herries with a sigh, and to comfort him Elspeth raised his disengaged hand to her lips.