He had led me to the mirror and stationed me there alone. I liked not to look, but I did.
"Why, Angus," I said, "it's I."
"Well done! and go to the head. It's you indeed. But what else, Ailie darling? Nay, I'll tell you, then. The first syllable—just to suit my fancy—shall be bride, shall it not?"
"Bride," I murmured.
"And there behold the last syllable!" taking a step aside to the window, and throwing wide the blind.
I looked down the dark, but there was nought except the servant in the light of the hanging lamp, holding the curbs of the two horses that leaped and reared with nervous limbs and fiery eyes behind him.
"Is it horses?—steeds?—oh, bridles!"
"But thou'rt a very dunce! The last syllable is groom."
"Oh!"
"Now you shall see the embodiment of the whole word"; and with the step he was before the glass again. "Look!" he said; "look from under my arm,—you are just as high as my heart!"