"She came to me, like a gray mist, beyond the dyke of the green place, near the road. The face of her was gray as a gray dawn, but the voice was hers, though I heard it under a wave, so dull and far was it. And these are her words to me, and mine to her--and the first speaking was mine, for the silence wore me: Am bheil thu' falbh, O mo ghraidh? _B'idh mi falbh, Mùirnean!_ C'uin a thilleas tu, O mo ghraidh? _Cha till mi an rathad so; Tha an't ait e cumhann-- O mùirnean, mùirnean! B'idh mi falbh an drùgh Am tigh Pharais, Mùirnean!_ Sèol dhomh an rathad, Mo ghraidh! _Thig an so Mùirnean-mo, Thig an so!_ * * * * * Are you going, My dear one? _Yea, now I am going, Dearest._ When will you come again, My dear one? _I will not return this way; The place is narrow-- O my darling! I will be going to Paradise, Dear, my dear one!_ Show me the way, Heart of my heart! _Come hither, dearest, come hither, Come with me!_ "And then I saw that it was a mist, and that I was alone. But now this night it is that I feel the breath on the soles of my feet." And with that I knew there was no hope. "_Ma tha sin an dàn!_ ... if that be ordained," was all that rose to my lips. It was that night he died. I fell asleep in the second hour. When I woke in the gray dawn, his face was grayer than that and more cold. IV THE SMOOTHING OF THE HAND Glad am I that wherever and whenever I listen intently I can hear the looms of Nature weaving Beauty and Music. But some of the most beautiful things are learned otherwise--by hazard, in the Way of Pain, or at the Gate of Sorrow. I learned two things on the day when I saw Sheumas McIan dead upon the heather. He of whom I speak was the son of Ian McIan Alltnalee, but was known throughout the home straths and the countries beyond as Sheumas Dhu, Black James, or, to render the subtler meaning implied in this instance, James the Dark One. I had wondered occasionally at the designation, because Sheumas, if not exactly fair, was not dark. But the name was given to him, as I learned later, because, as commonly rumoured, he knew that which he should not have known.