“And what made you do so, child,” said her mother, “to startle us all thus?”
“Because,” said Mary, lowering her voice, “I could not help it.”
“Not help it, Mary!—you occasioned all this idle noise, and you could not help it? How mean you by that, minion?”
“There really was an armed man in this spence,” said Mary; “and because I was surprised to see him, I cried out to Halbert and Edward—”
“She has told it herself,” said Halbert Glendinning, “or it had never been told by me.”
“Nor by me neither,” said Edward, emulously.
“Mistress Mary,” said Elspeth, “you never told us anything before that was not true; tell us if this was a Hallowe'en cantrip, and make an end of it.” The Lady of Avenel looked as if she would have interfered, but knew not how; and Elspeth, who was too eagerly curious to regard any distant hint, persevered in her inquiries. “Was it Christie of the Clint-hill?—I would not for a mark that he were about the house, and a body no ken whare.”
“It was not Christie,” said Mary; “it was—it was a gentleman—a gentleman with a bright breastplate, like what I hae seen langsyne, when we dwelt at Avenel—”
“What like was he?” continued Tibb, who now took share in the investigation.
“Black-haired, black-eyed, with a peaked black beard,” said the child; “and many a fold of pearling round his neck, and hanging down his breast ower his breastplate; and he had a beautiful hawk, with silver bells, standing on his left hand, with a crimson silk hood upon its head—”