I saw her there, in the splendid
room she always dimmed with her greater splendour, the exquisite Marquess
at her feet, happy in possession of the pearl of great price. Over this
vision a shadow came, and I saw the house-place at the Hanyards, with our
widowed Kate alone in her sorrow. Her flame-red hair was white as snow and
tears of blood were on her cheeks. Donald's farewell, _Weird mun hae
way_, boomed in my ears like a dirge. With a sigh that was near of kin
to a sob, I pulled the mare round and urged her northwards, northwards and
homewards.
In my fear and trembling I shirked everything, doing childishly and more
than childishly. I was not on Sultan, and when I rode out of Lichfield I
hugged that simple fact to my heart. So much of my dream had at least not
come true, and I gave the lie to more of it by leaving the high road and
wandering devious ways till, within four or five miles of home, I left
even the by-ways and kept to the fields. So keen was I on my little
stratagems that I rode over the Upper Hanyards without once recalling the
fact that it was now mine as it had been my father's before me.
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