Time passed, weeks became months, months years, as is the appointed way in this round old world of ours. From a plain, unnoticeable little girl Merran grew into a tall sweet-faced maiden. She was not exactly pretty, she was quiet and rather serious, but her dark eyes, though somewhat dreamy in expression, were very charming, and the tones of her voice were very musical. So she was not without admirers, you may be sure. Many a man would have liked to marry her--some among them, no doubt, influenced by the knowledge of her wonderful gift, for of course the possession of it could not be kept a secret if she had wished, and she was far from desiring this. On the contrary, her kind heart rejoiced when she was able to use it for the advantage of her neighbours as well as for the relations whom she now loved as if they were her very own, and who on their side loved her. But she kept her secret, faithful to the promise she had given to the lovely Sunshine fairy, though there were times when she longed to share it with one in whom she could safely confide. And now and then at intervals she had a strange feeling that Dirk suspected something, for she sometimes caught his eyes fixed on her with a kind of veiled enquiry, and once he said in a low voice, with a curious smile, "Little Merran, you are not like the rest of us." "Are you, yourself, Dirk?" she replied. "There are things you know and feel that the others don't--the voices in the wind, the burden of the birds' songs, the secrets of the restless waves--oh, Dirk, if one lived a thousand years, there would still be mysteries upon mysteries of beautiful things to learn!" Then she grew shy again, for she was always quiet and timid and wondered how she had found courage to say so much. But Dirk seemed pleased. "Yes," he said, nodding his head gently. "Maybe we are a bit different from most of those about us. You, anyway, Merran. I've seen strange lands and beautiful places, but you--you give me the feeling that once upon a time you must have had a glimpse of real fairyland." Merran grew red at this, but she made no reply. Only to herself she said, "I wish--I do wish I might tell him," and then she grew still redder when the words of the Sunshine fairy returned to her memory that only to _one_ person might she ever reveal her secret. "And that one will never be my fate," thought the girl sadly. "Dirk will never care for me in _that_ way, and never could I care for any one but him." Whereas on his side, Dirk said to himself that he must never hope to win the sweet weather maiden for himself. "Why, half the young fellows in the country-side, and old ones too, are ready to woo her if she'd let them! They think she'd bring good luck to her husband, and so she would. But it's not for that _I_'d care for her--it's that I love her for her own self, luck or no luck."