ing at," said Nan.

Gilian reflected, and "You know the Lady's Linn?" he said.

She nodded.

"Well," said he. "Do you know the story of it, and why it is called the
Lady's Linn?"

Nan confessed her ignorance; but a story--oh, that was good enough!

"Come to the Linn and I'll show you the place, then," said Gilian, and
he led her among the grasses, among the tall commanding brackens, upon
the old moss that gave no whisper to the footfall, so that, for
the nymphs among the trees, the pair of them might be comrades too,
immortal. A few moments brought them to the Linn, a deep pool in the
river bend, lying so calm that the blue field of heaven and its wisps
of cloud astray like lambs were painted on its surface. Round about, the
banks rose steep, magnificent with flowers.

"See," said Gilian, pointing to the reflection at their feet. "Does it
not look like a piece of the sky tumbled among the grasses? I sometimes
think, to see it like that, that to fall into it would be to tangle with
the stars."

Nan only laughed and stooped to lift a stone.

She threw it into the very midst of the pool, and the mirror of the
heavens was shattered.

"I never thought I could throw into the sky so far," she said
mischievously, pleased as it seemed to spoil the illusion in so sudden
and sufficient a manner.

"Oh!" he cried, pained to the quick, "you should not have done that, it
will spoil the story."

"What is the story?" she said, sitting and looking down upon the
troubled pool.

"You must wait till the water is calm again," said he, seating himself a
little below her on the bank, and watching the water-rings subside.
Then when the pool had regained its old placidity, with the flecked sky
pictured on it, he began his Gaelic story.

"Once upon a time," said he, in the manner of the shealing tales, "there
was a lady with eyes like the sea, and hair blowing like the tassel of
the fir, and she was a daughter of the King in Knapdale, and she looked
upon the world and she was weary. There came a little man to her from
the wood and he said, 'Go seven days, three upon water and four upon
land, and you will come to a place where the moon's sister swims, and
there will be the earl's son and the husband.' The lady travelled seven
days, three upon water and four upon land, and she came to the Linn
where the sister of the moon was swimming. 'Where is my earl's son
that is to be-my husband?' she asked: and the moon's sister said he was