as they ventured to look up through
the dripping, pendulous branches, there was a glimpse of heavenly blue
above them; behold, the rain was over and gone!

Then carefully did the handsome old gillie spread out her waterproof on
the sloping bank for Miss Honnor to sit on; he brought forth the little
parcels neatly tied up in white paper, likewise a bottle of milk and two
silver drinking-cups; when he had seen that she was all properly cared
for, he handed to Lionel the game-bag which had held the luncheon, so
that that might serve as the other seat, if he chose; and then the old
man withdrew a few yards down the little hollow, to be within call if he
were wanted.

And what had Lionel to say for himself, now that he had been admitted
into this secret haunt of the river-maiden? Well, if the truth must be
told, he was considerably embarrassed. For one thing, he was mortally
afraid that she might suddenly bethink herself of Paul and Virginia, and
be annoyed by a situation which was certainly none of his contriving.
What was still worse, she might be amused! He could not get it out of
his head that there was something dangerously, almost ludicrously,
conventional in the whole position; it seemed to suggest some foolish,
old-fashioned, sentimental picture. The solitary dell, and the two
figures; why, he felt as if blue ribbons were beginning to sprout at his
knees; and he feared to turn to his companion lest he should find her
with a crook and a kirtle. He did not ask himself why wretched
reminiscences of theatrical tradition should thrust themselves upon him
here in the lonely wilds of Ross-shire; what he dreaded was that some
such idea might occur to her and provoke her resentment--what was still
more ghastly, it might make her laugh!

Honnor Cunyngham, for her part, was quietly and contentedly munching her
sandwiches of salmon and vinegared lettuce-leaf; and no such idle
town-fancies were troubling her. Probably she was thinking that the hot
sunlight after the shower made everything intensely vivid--the
silver-stemmed birches in this picturesque little dell rising gracefully
into the keen blue of the sky; the diamond-starred bracken and grass
shining after the wet; the clear, tea-brown water at her feet glancing
in the sun; the green and bronze stones and pebbles showing clear at the
bottom of the pellucid brook as it chased and danced on its way down to
the Geinig. And whatever else she may have been thinking of, she wa