* * * * *
At this point Peterkin rose from where he kneeled beside Eilidh, and went over to Ian Mor and took his hand and looked long at him.
“These words I have heard you say again and again, Ian—Ma tha sin an Dan, if it be Destiny—what do they mean?”
“I cannot tell you, Peterkin; for to me they mean everything.”
“But must Kian come to sorrow because he followed the way of the wind?”
“I cannot tell you, Peterkin. But of this you may be sure, that no man needs to do this or that thing because of the way of the wind or anything else. Only, behind all doings of men there is a wind that blows. That is the wind of Destiny. That is what I meant when I said that Kian, choosing lightly to go the way of the wind, and by his own choice, yet went the way of Fate.”
“And is Fate a man?”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen it?”
“No.”