Then we are
thundering through rocky chasms and watching the roaring brown torrent
beneath; or panting or struggling away up the lonely altitudes of
Drumouchter; and again merrily racing and chasing down into the spacious
valley of the Spey. And what for the end?--the long, still strath after
leaving Invershin--the penetration into the more secret solitudes--the
peaks of Coulmore and Suilven in the west--and here the Aivron making a
murmuring music over its golden gravel! There is a smell of peat in the
air; there are children's voices about the keepers' cottages; and here
is the handsome old Robert, rejoiced that the year has opened again and
Miss Honnor come back! "Well, Robert, you must come in and have a dram,
and I will show you the tackle I've brought with me." "I am not wishing
for a dram, Miss Honnor, so much as I am glad to see you back again, ay,
and looking so well!"
"Mr. Moore," she said (and she startled him out of his reverie), "do you
ever give a little dinner-party at your rooms?"
"Well, seldom," he said. "You see, I have only the one evening in the
week; and I have generally some engagement or other."
[Illustration: "_There was a slight touch of color visible on the
gracious forehead when she offered him her hand.
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