d as for Lionel,
his throat was too valuable and sensitive a possession to be treated to
raw spirits at that time of the morning. Then, that ceremony being over,
they deposited the salmon in a hole in the bank, to be picked up on
their homeward journey, and forthwith set out again, up the valley of
the Geinig.

Their surroundings were now becoming more wild and lonely--this, in
fact, being the route by which Lionel had travelled the day before when
he was after the deer. Down in the glen, it is true, everything was
pretty enough--the silver-gray rocks, the rushing brown water, the banks
hanging with birches; but far away on those upland heights there was
nothing but the monotonous deep purple of the heather, broken here and
there, perhaps, by a dark-green pine; and beyond those heights again
rose the rounded tops and shoulders of the distant cloud-stained hills.
It was after Miss Honnor had industriously but unsuccessfully fished the
Horseshoe and the Cormorant Pool that she chanced to be regarding that
mountainous line along the sky; and she then perceived that one of those
far shoulders was gradually changing from a sombre blue into a soft and
pearly gray.

"Do you see the veil that has come over the high peak yonder?" she asked
of her companion. "There is rain falling there; and most likely we shall
have a shower or two here by and by; and, as you have no waterproof, we
may as well push on to a place of shelter where we can have our lunch. I
know a pretty little dell up there, just above the Geinig Pool; and it
will be quite a new sensation for me to have any one with me, for
ordinarily I have my lunch there, in solitary state, and I sit and
stare, and sit and stare, until I believe I know every stone in the burn
and every spear of grass on the opposite bank."

Even as she spoke there was a slight pattering here in the sunlight, and
diamonds began to glitter on the brackan. Then came a cold stirring of
wind; there was a sensation of darkness overhead--of impending gloom--of
hushed expectancy; finally, just as they reached the little glade,
descended into it, crossed the burn, and took refuge beneath some
overhanging birch trees, the heavy rattle of the deluge was heard all
around them, and they wore glad enough to be under this canopy of
trembling leaves. It was only a sharp shower, after all. That universal
whir grew fainter; the air became warmer; a kind of watery glow began to
show itself in the sky; presently,