ted paper before his bewildered gaze. "The young and gifted
actress." She is "shortly to be married." And the new piece that all the
world will come to see, as soon as she is returned from her wedding
tour, is "of a tragic nature."

* * * * *

Hamish! Hamish! do you hear these things? Do you know what they mean?
Oh, we will have to look sharp if we are to be there in time. Come
along, you brave lads! it is not the first time that a Macleod has
carried off a bride. And will she cry, do you think--for we have no
pipes to drown her screams? Ah, but we will manage it another way than
that, Hamish! You have no cunning, you old man! There will be no scream
when the white adder is seized and caged.

* * * * *

But surely no white adder? Oh, sweetheart, you gave me a red rose! And
do you remember the night in the garden, with the moonlight around us,
and the favor you wore next your heart was the badge of the Macleods?
You were not afraid of the Macleods then; you had no fear of the rude
Northern people; you said they would not crush a pale Rose-leaf. And
now--now--see! I have rescued you; and those people will persuade you no
longer: I have taken you away--you are free! And will you come up on
deck now, and look around on the summer sea? And shall we put in to some
port, and telegraph that the runaway bride is happy enough, and that
they will hear of her next from Castle Dare? Look around, sweetheart:
surely you know the old boat. And here is Christina to wait on you; and
Hamish--Hamish will curse you no more--he will be your friend now. Oh,
you will make the mother's heart glad at last! she has not smiled for
many a day.

* * * * *

Or is it the proud madam that is below, Hamish; and she will not speak;
and she sits alone in all her finery? And what are we to do with her
now, then, to break her will? Do you think she will speak when she is in
the midst of the silence of the Northern seas? Or will they be after us,
Hamish? Oh, that would be a fine chase, indeed! and we would lead them a
fine dance through the Western Isles; and I think you would try their
knowledge of the channels and the banks. And the painter-fellow, Hamish,
the woman-man, the dabbler--would he be in the boat behind us? or would
he be down below, in bed in the cabin, with a nurse to attend him? Come
along, then!--but beware of the over-falls of Tiree, you south