d Troubling of the Waters

meny, beautiful, dumb Kilmeny was, as he had once involuntarily thought, “ the one maid ” for him. Nothing should part them. The mere idea of never seeing her again was so unbearable that he laughed at himself for having counted it a possible alternative.

“ If I can win Kilmeny’s love I shall ask her to be my wife,” he said, looking out of the window to the dark, southwest- ern hill beyond which lay his orchard.

The velvet sky over it was still starry; but the water of the harbour was begin— ning to grow silvery in the reflection of the dawn that was breaking in the east.

“ Her misfortune will only make her dearer to me. I cannot realize that a month ago I did not know her. It seems to me that she has been a part of my life for ever. I wonder if she was grieved that I did not go to the orchard last night—if she waited for me. I wonder if she cares for me. If she does, she does not know it herself yet. It will be my sweet task

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