Patsy

d, hawk-beaked, cockatoo-crested, with angry grey eyebrows runnin

knew them in that country of the Southern Albanach. For Leo R

Because he was a land miser, hoarding parishes and townships. He grudged the sea its fringe of foam, the three-mile fishing limit, the very high-and-low mark between the tides which was not hi

d villages, mills with little threads of white wimpling away from the unheard constant c

d gardens, the fiery flash of hot-house glass where the sun struck, and pinnacles high in air, above all the tall tower from which Margaret de Raincy ha

rained fields with the cows feeding belly-deep with twitching tails, and the sweep of the ripening crops which ran off to either side over knolls carefully plan

lee of the big pines, a plain, douce, much-ivied house; and down in a nook by the sea, Abbey Burnfoot, called "The Abbey," a newer and brighter place, set like a jewe

the name at the top of the Glen, and of his brother Julian-he who had cursed the noble scythe-sweep of the Abbe

ago they stole it. They came with the Stuart king who had nothing to do in the Free Province, and we stood for the Douglases

ntrol his senile anger a

d it ever since-the pick of our heritage-the jewel in the lotus. Often we have asked it back-often taken it. But becaus

nking of something else (for he had hea

?" he said, fanning himself with the blue velvet

tung. He frowned and blinke

od. MacBryde will out!-No Raincy would thus h

nd! And more than that, don't go back and worry mother about these old cow-pastures. You know you are really very fond of her. As for me, I may not be a real Raincy, for I was born to do something in life, not to idle through it. You won't let me go into the nav

an. Suddenly the boy stood up straight and firm before him, with a dourness on his

the university for nothing, I shall go straight to the ship-building yard and get my uncle, mother's broth

pair with his hands, as though abandoning his grandson to his own evil cour

ke use of for the past ten minutes. He also had his reasons for being interested in the Ferris properties which lay beneath him, every field and dyke and hedgerow, every curve of coast

ut why he wants to be for ever trotting out a grievance four hundred years old-hang me if I see. Anyway, Dame Comfort will soon put him all right. He gets on with her-he and I never hit it off ... quite. I fear I wasn't b

De Raincy, this could hardly be. So there was good prima facie eviden

air as he lay prone on the stile-top, leaning on his elbows, and intently studying something

a "birse" about his face, and dark-blue western eyes-the eyes of the island MacBrydes who had built ships to ride the sea, and whose younger branches had captained and made fortunes out of far sea adventuring. So with the thoroughness of these same privateer shipbuilders, Louis precipitated himself down the steep breakneck cliff, catching the trunk

es quivered, blotting the white of the path with myriads of purple splashes, none of which were distinct or eve

that Patsy, for whose sake he had torn through the underbrush at th

till I find a snug corne

randfather and from possible spies in the front windows of Cairn Ferris, the quiet ivy-grown ho

ell was deep enough to keep any one from breaking in upon them too suddenly, and through a rift in the leaves a piece of bluest sky peered dow

een? Clearly not, for Louis had come downhill as fast as a

d not even try. All the same he left his nook with some disrelish-it would have been so capital a conjuncture to have met her

r arm, and an ashplant in her hand. She would come along quietly, whistling low to herself, tickling the tails of the

and Louis paused at the cor

were conferring profoundly over a book which Patsy held in her hands. The young man in the shabby suit appeared to be in

course the heir of Raincy knew

course-what a fool I was. He's on his way home from teaching the Auchenmore brats. Though it is a mira

blackness of the little curls that frothed about her brow, and the sidelong way she had of ap

e Abbey Burn in a couple of leaps, his feet hardly seeming to touch the stones, and in a moment more his tall figure was hoisting itself up the opposite

ent during the interview with the Poor Scholar. He swung himself ligh

passage she had just had explained. Then Louis Raincy whistled an ai

with a ripple of ink-black locks, to the notch of the willow, and said easil

he head of that poor

s yours, Louis, lad," Patsy retor

at she was going to say, and it would have grieved him exceedingly not to be abused. He would have bee

ular order of things, as they both knew. For in the valley bottom Uncle Julian or Adam Ferris might come round the corner upon them in a moment, and being young, they wanted to talk without restraint. Besides, there was a constant coming and going of mes

You know he called me Patricia after my mother-Patricia Wemyss Ferris. Oh, not even your grandfather is better known than my father. They made him a justice of the peace, too, but because he can do no good to the poor folk against the great landlords, he mostly stays at home. You kno

those who were his, "if it were not for grandfather and his wretched old feud,

onnet a vicious jerk to bid it stay on her hea

in Louis Rain

is, lad. Easy it is to see that you have had little experience of talking to women, when you come firing off wo

an Louis, preparing

er father the Laird of Kirkmaiden was the chief of them. That is why I do nothing, say nothing, think nothing like a scone-faced maid of the Scots. I am centuries older than they. If it ever arrives to me to fall in love with any

ee, she made a delicious repast. She offered his share to Louis, who was in no mood for frivolities. In spite of his smile he had been hurt to the quick. But Patsy was perfectly calm, and having

ppeared tramping sturdily up the glen swinging a stick

ed man had turned the corner. "I wish you could see

m the sea!" said Lo

g about in the offing these days, and if they thought that the heir of Raincy was spyin

gling or smugglers? My grandfather says that it is

looking as gloomy as the raven that croaked when the old cow wouldn't die. No, sir, you would be sitting up on the st

s hurt in his feelings or no. If he were, the obvious alternative was before him. He could retu

ing or anybody, and so accustomed herself to the