-the monarch of them, Ben More,
showing a cone of dark and thunderous purple under a long and heavy
swathe of cloud. Far away, too, on their right, stretched the splendid
rampart of the Gribun cliffs, a soft sunlight on the grassy greens of
their summits; a pale and brilliant blue in the shadows of the huge and
yawning caves. And so still it was, and the air so fine and sweet: it
was a day for the idling of happy lovers.

What jarred, then? Not the silent appearance of the head of a seal in
that shining plain of blue and white; for the poor old fellow only
regarded the boat for a second or two with his large and pathetic eyes,
and then quietly disappeared. Perhaps it was this--that Miss White was
leaning over the side of the boat, and admiring very much the wonderful
hues of groups of sea-weed below, that were all distinctly visible in
the marvellously clear water. There were beautiful green plants that
spread their flat fingers over the silver-white sands; and huge rolls of
purple and sombre brown; and long strings that came up to the
surface--the traceries and decorations of these haunts of the mermaid.

"It is like a pantomime," she said. "You would expect to see a burst of
lime-light, and Neptune appearing with a silver trident and crown. Well,
it only shows that the scene-painters are nearer nature than most people
imagine. I should never have thought there was anything so beautiful in
the sea."

And then again she said, when they had rounded Ulva, and got a glimpse
of the open Atlantic again,

"Where is it, Keith, you proposed to sink all the theatres in England
for the benefit of the dolphins and the lobsters?"

He did not like these references to the theatre.

"It was only a piece of nonsense," said he, abruptly.

But then she begged him so prettily to get the men to sing the
boat-song, that he good-humoredly took out a sheet of paper and a
pencil, and said to her,--

"If I write it down for you, I must write it as it is pronounced. For
how would you know that _Fhir a bhata, na horo eile_ is pronounced _Feer
a vahta na horo ailya?_"

"And perhaps, then," said she, with a charming smile, "writing it down
would spoil it altogether? But you will ask them to sing it for me."

He said a word or two in the Gaelic to Sandy, who was rowing stroke; and
Sandy answered with a short, quick laugh of assent.

"I have asked them if they would drink your health," Macleod said, "and
they have not refused. It would b