"and then it would be nothing to laugh at."

"Sheila, you bad girl! how dare you talk like that to me?" said Ingram;
and he put his arm within hers and said he would tell her a story.

But this race to escape the storm was needless, for they were just
getting within sight of Barvas when a surprising change came over the
dark and thunderous afternoon. The hurrying masses of cloud in the west
parted for a little space, and there was a sudden and fitful glimmer of
a stormy blue sky. Then a strange soft yellow and vaporous light shot
across to the Barvas hills, and touched up palely the great slopes,
rendering them distant, ethereal and cloud-like. Then a shaft or two of
wild light flashed down upon the landscape beside them. The cattle shone
red in the brilliant green pastures. The gray rocks glowed in their
setting of moss. The stream going by Barvas Inn was a streak of gold in
its sandy bed. And then the sky above them broke into great billows of
cloud--tempestuous and rounded masses of golden vapor that burned with
the wild glare of the sunset. The clear spaces in the sky widened, and
from time to time the wind sent ragged bits of yellow cloud across the
shining blue. All the world seemed to be on fire, and the very smoke of
it, the majestic masses of vapor that rolled by overhead, burned with a
bewildering glare. Then, as the wind still blew hard, and kept veering
round again to the north-west, the fiercely-lit clouds were driven over
one by one, leaving a pale and serene sky to look down on the sinking
sun and the sea. The Atlantic caught the yellow glow on its tumbling
waves, and a deeper color stole across the slopes and peaks of the
Barvas hills. Whither had gone the storm? There were still some banks of
clouds away up in the north-east, and in the clear green of the evening
sky they had their distant grays and purples faintly tinged with rose.

"And so you are anxious and frightened, and a little pleased?" said
Ingram to Sheila that evening, after he had frankly told her what he
knew, and invited her further confidence. "That is all I can gather from
you, but it is enough. Now you can leave the rest to me."

"To you?" said the girl with a blush of pleasure and surprise.

"Yes. I like new experiences. I am going to become an intermeddler now.
I am going to arrange this affair, and become the negotiator between all
the parties; and then, when I have secured the happiness of the whole of
you, you will all set upon