le to
help a friend, especially with the aid of the _Bratach sith_. Imagine
Covent Garden Theatre a hundred fathoms down in the deep sea, with
mermaidens playing the brass instruments in the orchestra, and the
fairy-folk on the stage, and seals disporting themselves in the stalls,
and guillemots shooting about the upper galleries in pursuit of fish.
But we should get no peace from Iona. The fairies there are very pious
people. They used to carry St. Columba about when he got tired. They
would be sure to demand the shutting up of all the theatres, and the
destruction of the brass instruments. And I don't see how we could
reasonably object."

It was a cruel sort of jesting; but how otherwise than as a jest could
he convey to her, an actress, his wish that all theatres were at the
bottom of the sea? For a brief time that letter seemed to establish some
link of communication between him and her. He followed it on its travels
by sea and land. He thought of its reaching the house in which she
dwelt--perhaps some plain and grimy building in a great manufacturing
city, or perhaps a small quiet cottage up by Regent's Park half hidden
among the golden leaves of October. Might she not, moreover, after she
had opened it and read it, be moved by some passing whim to answer it,
though it demanded no answer? He waited for a week, and there was no
word or message from the South. She was far away, and silent. And the
hills grew lonelier than before, and the sickness of his heart
increased.

This state of mind could not last. His longing and impatience and unrest
became more than he could bear. It was in vain that he tried to satisfy
his imaginative craving with these idle visions of her: it was she
herself he must see; and he set about devising all manner of wild
excuses for one last visit to the South. But the more he considered
these various projects, the more ashamed he grew in thinking of his
taking any one of them and placing it before the beautiful old dame who
reigned in Castle Dare. He had barely been three months at home; how
could he explain to her this sudden desire to go away again?

One morning his cousin Janet came to him.

"Oh, Keith!" said she, "the whole house is in commotion; and Hamish is
for murdering some of the lads; and there is no one would dare to bring
the news to you. The two young buzzards have escaped!"

"I know it," he said. "I let them out myself."

"You!" she exclaimed in surprise; for she knew the