of his skin was the dingy brown peculiar
to his race; his arms were of remarkable length, and his limbs a union
of strength and lightness; his raven hair was mingled with grey; while,
in his dark eyes, the impetuosity of youth and the cunning of age seemed
blended together. It is in vain to speak of his dress, for it was
changed daily as his circumstances or avocations directed. He was ever
ready to assume all characters, from the courtier down to the mendicant.
Like his wife, he was skilled in the reading of no book but the book of
fate. Now, Elspeth was a less agreeable personage to look upon than even
her husband. The hue of her skin was as dark as his. She was also of his
age--a woman of full fifty. She was the tallest female in her tribe; but
her stoutness took away from her stature. Her eyes were small and
piercing, her nose aquiline, and her upper lip was "bearded like the
pard."

While her husband sat at his carousals, and handing the beverage to his
followers and the domestics of the house, Elspeth sat examining the
lines upon the palms of the hands of the maid-servants--pursuing her
calling as a spaewife. And ever as she traced the lines of matrimony,
the sybil would pause and exclaim--

"Ha!--money!--money!--cross my loof again, hinny. There is fortune
before ye! Let me see! A spur!--a sword!--a shield!--a gowden purse!
Heaven bless ye! They are there!--there, as plain as a pikestaff; they
are a' in your path. But cross my loof again, hinny, for until siller
again cross it, I canna see whether they are to be yours or no."

Thus did Elspeth go on until her "loof had been crossed" by the last
coin amongst the domestics of the house of Clennel; and when these were
exhausted, their trinkets were demanded and given to assist the spell of
the prophetess. Good fortune was prognosticated to the most of them, and
especially to those who crossed the loof of the reader of futurity most
freely; but to others, perils, and sudden deaths, and disappointments in
love, and grief in wedlock, were hinted, though to all and each of these
forebodings, a something like hope--an undefined way of escape--was
pended.

Now, as the voice of Elspeth rose in solemn tones, and as the mystery of
her manner increased, not only were the maid-servants stricken with awe
and reverence for the wondrous woman, but the men-servants also began to
inquire into their fate. And as they extended their hands, and Elspeth
traced the lines of the past