Anne again turned round to listen.
“She was looking away ower the water, and leaning on the hedge—maybe she lives yonder—and Miss Anne—”
“What is it, Jacky?”
Jacky drew near and spoke very low:
“Do you mind the sang, Miss Anne, that Miss Alice sang on the New-year’s night, when Mr. Archibald came home to the Tower?”
Anne started.
“The lady was saying it to hersel very low—the way Lilie sings her strange music.”
“What did she say, Jacky?”
“If ye please, Miss Anne, it was a short verse—it was about seeing the stars rise upon the Oran. I can say’t a’.” And Jacky hung back, and blushed and hesitated.
The connexion became clearer by every word. “The student lad” who wrote this ballad—could it be Patrick Lillie?