gips----"

"Choose!" I cried. "I have no choice. The men who stand balancing as to
whether they will or they won't, with 'Would it be wise?' or
'Acceptable to the world?' I have no knowledge of, and want none, as I
have told you often."

"Well," said he, "I've always called you crazy, Jock Stair," and here
he put his hand lovingly on my shoulder, "but I never discovered until
to-night how crazy you are. I'm not denying there's something fine
about it; but is it sensible? Think o' Pitcairn," he said, with a
laughing devil in his eye.

"Pitcairn may go to perdition," I answered with some heat.

"It's not Pitcairn that's on his way there, I'm thinking," he returned,
with a droll look; "but we must all learn by experience, so gang your
own gate. We're off at five in the morning. Do you go?"

He saw by my manner that nothing save an earthquake could get me from
the house, and whistling, with some significance, "The Deil Has Nae Got
all the Fools," he left me without a good-by word. After he had gone I
went forth into the open to be alone. The stars were shining brightly
through white clouds, which the sea winds drove across the sky, and far
down the cliff I could see the great beach fire and catch the laughter
and song of the gipsy folk and free-traders.

Tales were not wanting of the men of Stair who had lost their wits when
crossed in love; who had run away with other men's wives and had abided
with some jauntiness the world's dispraise, cleaving until death did
them part to the one woman who seemed God-made for them. I had thought
before this, in a slighting manner, of the strange doings of my
forebears; but the thing was upon me, and, come life, come death, I
knew that there was henceforward for me but one woman in the world,
Marian Ingarrach, an Irish gipsy-girl, with a beauty beyond the
natural, and a voice of music like the sounding of an old harp.

I stood under the great tree, the blood of a man and a lover pulsing
sweet and feverishly through my veins, when I saw her come out on the
balcony, over the sea door, where some posies grew, which she had come
to move back from the wind. I was not one to lose an opportunity like
this, for nature in me was strong and impulse-driven. I crossed the
space which divided us and spoke up to her.

"Will you come down?" I called to her; "I have that which I would say
to you to-night."

She started at the sound of my voice, hesitated for a moment, and with
no answer in wo