a thankful heart upon the shelly couch of the mermaids."

"Oh, Robin, I hope none of them came to you. They are so wonderfully
beautiful. And no one that ever has seen them cares any more for--for
dry people that wear dresses."

"Mary, you delight me much, by showing signs of jealousy. Fifty may have
come, but I saw not one, for I fell into a deep calm sleep. If they had
come, I would have spurned them all, not only from my constancy to you,
my dear, but from having had too much drip already. Mary, I see a man on
the other side of the mere, not opposite to us, but a good bit further
down. You see those two swimming birds: look far away between them, you
will see something moving."

"I see nothing, either standing still or moving. It is growing too dark
for any eyes not thoroughly trained in smuggling. But that reminds me to
tell you, Robin, that a strange man--a gentleman they seemed to say--has
been seen upon our land, and he wanted to see me, without my father
knowing it. But only think! I have never even asked you whether you are
hungry--perhaps even starving! How stupid, how selfish, how churlish of
me! But the fault is yours, because I had so much to hear of."

"Darling, you may trust me not to starve, I can feed by-and-by. For the
present I must talk, that you may know all about everything, and bear me
harmless in your mind, when evil things are said of me. Have you heard
that I went to see Widow Carroway, even before she had heard of her
loss, but not before I was hunted? I knew that I must do so, now or
never, before the whole world was up in arms against me; and I thank God
that I saw her. A man might think nothing of such an act, or even might
take it for hypocrisy; but a woman's heart is not so black. Though she
did not even know what I meant, for she had not felt her awful blow, and
I could not tell her of it, she did me justice afterward. In the thick
of her terrible desolation, she stood beside her husband's grave, in
Bridlington Priory Church yard, and she said to a hundred people there:
'Here lies my husband, foully murdered. The coroner's jury have brought
their verdict against Robin Lyth the smuggler. Robin Lyth is as innocent
as I am. I know who did it, and time will show. My curse is upon him;
and my eyes are on him now.' Then she fell down in a fit, and the
Preventive men, who were drawn up in a row, came and carried her away.
Did anybody tell you, darling? Perhaps they keep such things from you.