"Which thing I was most glad to hear from her fair and loving lips. And I thought, smilingly, that Rachel's manner of speaking these words became her very well.
"So there in the din of the water-cavern and under the wheeling shafts of silver light as the moon swung overhead, we two abode well content, waiting for the dawn.
"And so, in this manner, and for all my brave words, the witch got her way."
But how—we shall see.
THE LITTLE FAIR MAN
III.—THE CURATE OF KIRKCHRIST
"The manse of Kirkchrist parish was less than a mile down the glen. It had only a week or two before been taken possession of by one Donald Bain, an ignorant fellow, so they said, intruded upon us by the new bishop. For Mr. Gilbert, our old and tried minister and servant of God, had been removed, even as Mr. Rutherfurd had been put out of Anwoth, and at about the same time.
"Thither, then, we took our way, my dear betrothed and I, with my wounded arm carried across me, the sleeve being pinned to my coat front so that I could not move my hand.
"We kept entirely to the thickets by the waterside, Rachel leading the way. For she had played all her life at the game which had now become earnest and deadly. But we need not have troubled. For as we went, from far away, light as a waft of wind blown athwart a meadow, we heard the chorus of the roisterers in the house of Kirkchrist, and emergent from the servile ruck, the voice of her brother, the Roaring One, urging good fellows all to 'come drink with him.' Somewhat superfluously, indeed, to all appearance, for the good fellows all had apparently been 'come-drink-ing' all night to the best of their ability and opportunities.
"After this Rae and I went a little more openly and swiftly. This chiefly for my sake, because the uneven ground and the little branches of the hazel bushes caught and whipped my wounded arm, making me more than once to wince with the pain.