, for from childhood she had had a habit of looking
upwards. Up there on the lonely moor, the vault of heaven with its
galaxy of stars, its blue ethereal depths, its flood of silver
moonlight, or its breadth of sunlit blue, seemed so closely to envelop
and embrace her that it was impossible to ignore it; but to-night she
looked only at the gossamer spangles on her path.

"What did Will mean by 'We must part! Whatever thou mayst hear!'" and
she sighed a little wearily as she lifted the latch of the cottage door.

"Morva sighing!" said Sara, who sat reading her chapter by the
fireside. "Don't begin that, 'merch i, or I must do the same. I would
never be happy, child, if thou wert not happy too; we are too closely
knit together."

And she took the girl's strong, firm hand in her own, so frail, so
slender, and so soft. Morva's eyes filled with tears.

"Mother, I am happy, I think. Why should I not be? They are all so
kind to me at Garthowen, and I love them all so much. I would lay my
life down for them, mother, and still be happy!"

"Yes, child, I believe thou wouldst. Come to supper, the cawl is
ready."

"Tis the cynos to-morrow night, mother, will I go?"

"Yes, of course; I wouldn't have thee go to the cynos of any other
farm; there is too much foolishness going on."

"Robin Davies, the sailor, is going to bring his fiddle, and there will
be fun, but Ann will not allow any foolishness."

"No, no," said Sara, "she's a sensible girl, and going to be married to
Gwilym Morris too! that will be a happy thing for her I think."

Morva was silent, following her own train of thoughts while she ate her
barley bread and drank her cawl, and when she broke the silence with a
remark about Will, to both women it came naturally, as the sequence of
their musings.

"Will is going away to-morrow, mother."

"Away to-morrow! so soon?"

"Only for a day or two, I think."

"Was that the meaning of the sigh then, Morva?"

"I don't know," said the girl, pensively chasing a fly with her finger
on the table. "Oh, mother! I don't know, it is all a turmoil and
unrest of thoughts here," and she drew her hand over her forehead.

"Well, never mind that, 'merch i, if it is rest and happiness _here_,"
and Sara laid her finger on the region of Morva's heart. "Tell me
that, child; is it rest and love there?"

"Oh! I don't know, mother; I don't know indeed, indeed."

And then she did what Sara had scarcely ever seen her do