of the flood, which alone was between them; and then he
stroked his jet-black beard, and waited for Lorna to begin. Very likely,
he thought that she would thank him for his kindness to her. But she was
now recovering the power of her nimble limbs; and ready to be off like
hope, and wonder at her own cowardice.

"I have spared you this time," he said, in his deep calm voice, "only
because it suits my plans; and I never yield to temper. But unless you
come back to-morrow, pure, and with all you took away, and teach me
to destroy that fool, who has destroyed himself for you, your death is
here, your death is here, where it has long been waiting."

Although his gun was empty, he struck the breech of it with his finger;
and then he turned away, not deigning even once to look back again; and
Lorna saw his giant figure striding across the meadow-land, as if the
Ridds were nobodies, and he the proper owner. Both mother and I were
greatly hurt at hearing of this insolence: for we had owned that meadow,
from the time of the great Alfred; and even when that good king lay in
the Isle of Athelney, he had a Ridd along with him.

Now I spoke to Lorna gently, seeing how much she had been tried; and
I praised her for her courage, in not having run away, when she was so
unable; and my darling was pleased with this, and smiled upon me for
saying it; though she knew right well that, in this matter, my judgment
was not impartial. But you may take this as a general rule, that a woman
likes praise from the man whom she loves, and cannot stop always to
balance it.

Now expecting a sharp attack that night--when Jeremy Stickles the more
expected, after the words of Carver, which seemed to be meant to mislead
us--we prepared a great quantity of knuckles of pork, and a ham in full
cut, and a fillet of hung mutton. For we would almost surrender rather
than keep our garrison hungry. And all our men were exceedingly brave;
and counted their rounds of the house in half-pints.

Before the maidens went to bed, Lorna made a remark which seemed to me a
very clever one, and then I wondered how on earth it had never occurred
to me before. But first she had done a thing which I could not in the
least approve of: for she had gone up to my mother, and thrown herself
into her arms, and begged to be allowed to return to Glen Doone.

"My child, are you unhappy here?" mother asked her, very gently, for she
had begun to regard her now as a daughter of her own