e was so anxious that everything should please her that
he dared scarce bid her look at anything. He had himself superintended
the mending of the steep path; but even now the recent rains had left
some puddles. Would she not consider the moist, warm odors of this
larch-wood as too oppressive?

"What is that?" she said, suddenly.

There was a sound far below them of the striking of oars in the water,
and another sound of one or two men monotonously chanting a rude sort of
chorus.

"They are taking the gig on to the yacht," he said.

"But what are they singing?"

"Oh, that is _Fhir a bhata_" said he; "it is the common boat-song. It
means, _Good-by to you, boatman, a hundred times, wherever you may be
going._"

"It is very striking, very effective, to hear singing and not see the
people," she said. "It is the very prettiest introduction to a scene; I
wonder it is not oftener used. Do you think they could write me down the
words and music of that song?"

"Oh no, I think not," said he, with a nervous laugh. "But you will find
something like it, no doubt, in your book."

So they passed on through the plantation; and at last they came to an
open glade; and here was a deep chasm spanned by a curious old bridge of
stone almost hidden by ivy; and there was a brawling stream dashing down
over the rocks and flinging spray all over the briers, and queen of the
meadow, and foxgloves on either bank.

"That is very pretty," said she; and then he was eager to tell her that
this little glen was even more beautiful when the rowan-trees showed
their rich clusters of scarlet berries.

"Those bushes there, you mean," said she. "The mountain-ash?"

"Yes."

"Ah," she said, "I never see those scarlet berries without wishing I was
a dark woman. If my hair were black, I would wear nothing else in it."

By this time they had climbed well up the cliff; and presently they came
on the open plateau on which stood Castle Dare, with its gaunt walls and
its rambling courtyards, and its stretch of damp lawn with a few
fuchsia-bushes and orange-lilies, that did not give a very ornamental
look to the place.

"We have had heavy rains of late," he said, hastily; he hoped the house
and its surroundings did not look too dismal.

And when they went inside and passed through the sombre dining-hall,
with its huge fireplace, and its dark weapons, and its few portraits
dimly visible in the dusk, he said,--

"It is very gloomy in the daytime; but