n from the South.

Now what was Hamish's answer to this gay invitation? The Gaelic tongue
is almost devoid of those meaningless expletives which, in other
languages, express mere annoyance of temper; when a Highlander swears,
he usually swears in English. But the Gaelic curse is a much more solemn
and deliberate affair.

"_May her soul dwell in the lowermost hall of perdition!_"--that was the
answer that Hamish made; and there was a blaze of anger in the keen eyes
and in the proud and handsome face.

"Oh, yes," continued the old man, in his native tongue, and he spoke
rapidly and passionately, "I am only a serving-man, and perhaps a
serving-man ought not to speak; but perhaps sometimes he will speak. And
have I not seen it all, Sir Keith?--and no more of the pink letters
coming; and you going about a changed man, as if there was nothing more
in life for you? And now you ask me if I will go to the wedding? And
what do I say to you, Sir Keith? I say this to you--that the woman is
not now living who will put that shame on Macleod of Dare!"

Macleod regarded the old man's angry vehemence almost indifferently; he
had grown to pay little heed to anything around him.--

"Oh yes, it is a fine thing for the English lady," said Hamish, with the
same proud fierceness, "to come here and amuse herself. But she does not
know the Mull men yet. Do you think, Sir Keith, that any one of your
forefathers would have had this shame put upon him? I think not. I think
he would have said, 'Come, lads, here is a proud madam that does not
know that a man's will is stronger than a woman's will; and we will
teach her a lesson. And before she has learned that lesson, she will
discover that it is not safe to trifle with a Macleod of Dare.' And you
ask me if I will go to the wedding! I have known you since you were a
child, Sir Keith; and I put the first gun in your hand; and I saw you
catch your first salmon: it is not right to laugh at an old man."

"Laughing at you Hamish? I gave you an invitation to a wedding!"

"And if I was going to that wedding," said Hamish, with a return of that
fierce light to the gray eyes, "do you know how I would go to the
wedding? I would take two or three of the young lads with me. We would
make a fine party for the wedding. Oh yes, a fine party! And if the
English church is a fine church, can we not take off our caps as well as
any one? But when the pretty madam came in, I would say to myself, 'Oh
yes, my fine