the boys from the
glens hooching with upthrown arm, now this and now that, and their
shoes beating out the time as though the music and the dancing was in
the very blood of them, and indeed so it was.

And there would be fiddlers too, and step-dancing, and singing and
everything to be making merry the heart of a man.

Hugh and Helen would be leaving the dance at last, and there was a buzz
of laughing, although nobody would be knowing where the pair of them
were to be that night; and it was then that Margaret would be at her
good-nights to Bryde, for they could not be having enough of each other
all that day.

"It will be you and me next," said Bryde, "Margaret, my little
darling," and she crept closer to him.

"Take me somewhere," said she, "where the folk will not be seeing."

And then, "I will have been mad to be doing this all this night," said
she, and pulled his head down to her and kissed him. "Tell me, Bryde,
oh, tell me."

"I am loving you," said he, and his eyes burning, "loving the grace and
the beauty and the bravery in you," and he lifted her into his arm like
a wean, and his face was bent to hers and her white arms round him.
Her eyes were softly closed, and a little white smile on her face.

"For ever and ever, my great dark man," she whispered.

"Darling," said Bryde, "little darling, for ever and ever," and with a
face all laughing and her eyes like stars she ran from him to her room.

And coming from her door--for he had followed her, laughing at her
dainty finger raised in smiling command--coming from her closed door
with her love about him like a cloud, there met him his cousin's wife,
and he could hear the crying of the dancers below, and Hugh's voice
forbidding pursuit.

"Good-night," said Helen, and gave him her hand--it was very cold.
"Good-night," and then with a half sob, "Jus' _won_ kiss," she
whispered . . . I am often wondering. . . .

* * * * * *

I would be with Belle when Bryde came among the dancers again. Her
eyes were yearning over him.

"I am wishing I had you home--you will be too happy, my wild boy."

"There are none to be wishing evil this night," said Bryde, and laughed
down at his mother; and then, "There is no lass so bonny as my mother,
Hamish," and he put his arm round her. "I will be behaving, little
mother," said he, and then Dan came to us and took Belle away.

* * * * * *

It made high-wat