"Jean, did you not hear me ring? I want you to--Why are you staring out at the window, Jean?" "I--I was just hearkening to the ten o'clock bell, ma'am." "I never saw you doing nothing before! Put the heater in the fire, Jean. I want to iron the minister's neckcloths. The prayer-meeting is long in coming out, is it not?" "The--the drouth, ma'am, has been so cruel hard." "And, to my shame, I am so comfortable that I almost forgot how others are suffering. But my son never forgets, Jean. You are not crying, are you?" "No, ma'am." "Bring the iron to the parlor, then. And if the minis--Why did you start, Jean? I only heard a dog barking." "I thocht, ma'am--at first I thocht it was Mr. Dishart opening the door. Ay, it's just a dog; some gypsy dog on the hill, I'm thinking, for sound would carry far the nicht." "Even you, Jean, are nervous at nights, I see, if there is no man in the house. We shall hear no more distant dogs barking, I warrant, when the minister comes home." "When he comes home, ma'am." _On the middle of a hill--a man and a woman_: "Courage, beloved; we are nearly there." "But, Gavin, I cannot see the encampment." "The night is too dark." "But the gypsy fires?" "They are in the Toad's-hole." "Listen to that dog barking." "There are several dogs at the encampment, Babbie." "There is one behind us. See, there it is!" "I have driven it away, dear. You are trembling." "What we are doing frightens me, Gavin. It is at your heels again!" "It seems to know you." "Oh, Gavin, it is Lord Rintoul's collie Snap. It will bite you." "No, I have driven it back again. Probably the earl is following us." "Gavin, I cannot go on with this." "Quicker, Babbie." "Leave me, dear, and save yourself." "Lean on me, Babbie." "Oh, Gavin, is there no way but this?" "No sure way." "Even though we are married to-night----" "We shall be married in five minutes, and then, whatever befall, he cannot have you." "But after?" "I will take you straight to the manse, to my mother." "Were it not for that dog, I should think we were alone on the hill." "But we are not. See, there are the gypsy fires." _On the west side of the hill--two figures_: "Tammas, Tammas Whamond, I've lost you. Should we gang to the manse down the fields?" "Wheesht, Hendry!" "What are you listening for?" "I heard a dog barking." "Only a gypsy dog, Tammas, barking at the coming storm." "The gypsy dogs are all tied up, and this one's atween us and the Toad's-hole. What was that?" "It was nothing but the rubbing of the branches in the cemetery on ane another. It's said, trees mak' that fearsome sound when they're terrified." "It was a dog barking at somebody that's stoning it. I ken that sound, Hendry Munn." "May I die the death, Tammas Whamond, if a great drap o' rain didna strike me the now, and I swear it was warm. I'm for running hame." "I'm for seeing who drove awa that dog. Come back wi' me, Hendry."