"'Tis just such another day," he muttered, crossing to the window and watching the hail-stones gather on the sill.—"What, then, bairn! Are we to cry because fortune is fairer than the weather? Have I not told thee there's to be peace at last? And Janet Ratcliffe, whom thou wast so eager for me to wed, will be mine soon as——"
"Thou hast told me all that, Ned," she interrupted gravely, "and yet—forgive me—I am sick at heart. Barguest was scratching at my door last night; I cannot rid me of him nowadays. What should the poor beast want with me?"
Wayne turned sharply and looked into his step-mother's face. If the sky's frown had chilled him, how could a word of Barguest fail to move him—Barguest, whose intimate, friendly dealings with his house had grown to be as much a part of Marsh as its walls, its trim-kept garden and lichened mistal-roofs.
"And not the Dog only, Ned," she went on, quietly, "but I saw thee stand on the brink of Wildwater Pool again—thee and Janet—and she cried to thee across the crimson waters like one whose soul is in dire torment."
"God keep us, bairn!" he cried. "Why didst not tell me this before? Did Janet speak in thy dream? Did she say aught of the Lean Man or her folk?"
"Naught; she did but wring her hands, and bid them hasten.—Ned, Ned, where art going?"
"Going? Why, to Wildwater. Red Ratcliffe has taken advantage of the old man's weakness.—God, bairn! Shall I be in time to save the lass?"
"'Twas no more than a dream, Ned," she stammered, trying to block his way. "I never thought 'twould drive thee up to Wildwater."
"How could it do less?" he answered, putting her from him and buckling on his sword-belt. "I laughed at dreams a while since—but only when they promise peace need we have doubt of them."
She followed him to the door, still piteous with entreaty. "Ned, have a care! The Lean Man is on our side now, but he is only one, and they are many at the grim house on the moor—rough men and cruel, like those who met me once and told me thou wast dying.—Well, then, if thou must go, let me come with thee!"