ght take the barge and be rowed up the river to
the Jaquelins' or to Green Spring; but in a moment this plan also became
repugnant. Finally he went out upon the terrace, and sat there the morning
through, staring at the river. That afternoon he sent a negro to the
store with a message for the storekeeper.

The Highlander, obeying the demand for his company,--the third or fourth
since his day at Williamsburgh,--came shortly before twilight to the great
house, and found the master thereof still upon the terrace, sitting
beneath an oak, with a small table and a bottle of wine beside him.

"Ha, Mr. MacLean!" he cried, as the other approached. "Some days have
passed since last we laid the ghosts! I had meant to sooner improve our
acquaintance. But my house has been in disorder, and I myself,"--he passed
his hand across his face as if to wipe away the expression into which it
had been set,--"I myself have been poor company. There is a witchery in
the air of this place. I am become but a dreamer of dreams."

As he spoke he motioned his guest to an empty chair, and began to pour
wine for them both. His hand was not quite steady, and there was about him
a restlessness of aspect most unnatural to the man. The storekeeper
thought him looking worn, and as though he had passed sleepless nights.

MacLean sat down, and drew his wineglass toward Mm. "It is the heat," he
said. "Last night, in the store, I felt that I was stifling; and I left
it, and lay on the bare ground without. A star shot down the sky, and I
wished that a wind as swift and strong would rise and sweep the land out
to sea. When the day comes that I die, I wish to die a fierce death. It is
best to die in battle, for then the mind is raised, and you taste all life
in the moment before you go. If a man achieves not that, then struggle
with earth or air or the waves of the sea is desirable. Driving sleet,
armies of the snow, night and trackless mountains, the leap of the
torrent, swollen lakes where kelpies lie in wait, wind on the sea with the
black reef and the charging breakers,--it is well to dash one's force
against the force of these, and to die after fighting. But in this cursed
land of warmth and ease a man dies like a dog that is old and hath lain
winter and summer upon the hearthstone." He drank his wine, and glanced
again at Haward. "I did not know that you were here," he said. "Saunderson
told me that you were going to Westover."

"I was,--I am," answered H