to have
refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted upon his shoulders; a
kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned with a wooden skewer round his
neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing all his nether garments as far as a
pair of hose, darned with yarn of all conceivable colours, and a pair of
shoes, patched and repaired till nothing of the original structure
remained, and clasped on his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the
dress of the old man was rude and sordid, that of his granddaughter was
gay, and even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round the
bosom with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric,
which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her snowy
feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed to touch the
grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament which woman seeks
much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, and encumbered rather than
adorned with a snood, set thick with marine productions, among which the
small clear pearl found in the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not
trusted to a handsome shape and a sylph-like air for young Barbara's
influence over the heart of man, but had bestowed a pair of large bright
blue eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love and gentleness and
joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees acknowledged
their power, and sang songs about the bonnie lass of Mark Macmoran. She
stood holding a small gaff-hook of polished steel in her hand, and seemed
not dissatisfied with the glances I bestowed on her from time to time,
and which I held more than requited by a single glance of those eyes
which retained so many capricious hearts in subjection.

The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at our
feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock pines,
and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on which sloops
and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every turn their extent of
white sail against the beam of the moon. I looked on old Mark the
mariner, who, seated motionless on his grey stone, kept his eye fixed on
the increasing waters with a look of seriousness and sorrow, in which I
saw little of the calculating spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he
looked on the coming tide, his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the
black and decayed hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the
quicksand, still addressed to every heart a ta