'I would say naething o' thae clavers to Mary,' he observed, and began to
walk forward.

There is a belt of turf along the side of Aros Bay, where walking is
easy; and it was along this that I silently followed my silent kinsman. I
was perhaps a little disappointed at having lost so good an opportunity
to declare my love; but I was at the same time far more deeply exercised
at the change that had befallen my uncle. He was never an ordinary,
never, in the strict sense, an amiable, man; but there was nothing in
even the worst that I had known of him before, to prepare me for so
strange a transformation. It was impossible to close the eyes against
one fact; that he had, as the saying goes, something on his mind; and as
I mentally ran over the different words which might be represented by the
letter M--misery, mercy, marriage, money, and the like--I was arrested
with a sort of start by the word murder. I was still considering the
ugly sound and fatal meaning of the word, when the direction of our walk
brought us to a point from which a view was to be had to either side,
back towards Aros Bay and homestead, and forward on the ocean, dotted to
the north with isles, and lying to the southward blue and open to the
sky. There my guide came to a halt, and stood staring for awhile on that
expanse. Then he turned to me and laid a hand on my arm.

'Ye think there's naething there?' he said, pointing with his pipe; and
then cried out aloud, with a kind of exultation: 'I'll tell ye, man! The
deid are down there--thick like rattons!'

He turned at once, and, without another word, we retraced our steps to
the house of Aros.

I was eager to be alone with Mary; yet it was not till after supper, and
then but for a short while, that I could have a word with her. I lost no
time beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly what was on my mind.

'Mary,' I said, 'I have not come to Aros without a hope. If that should
prove well founded, we may all leave and go somewhere else, secure of
daily bread and comfort; secure, perhaps, of something far beyond that,
which it would seem extravagant in me to promise. But there's a hope
that lies nearer to my heart than money.' And at that I paused. 'You
can guess fine what that is, Mary,' I said. She looked away from me in
silence, and that was small encouragement, but I was not to be put off.
'All my days I have thought the world of you,' I continued; 'the time
goes on and I think alwa