and there the white glimmer of a sea-bird 
in their wordnetfear. Down in the south the mountains 
that rise from the lovely Loch Ranza had caught some 
clouds about their peaks, and were black, as the moun- 
tains of Arran generally are ; but all in front of them, 
the smooth hills of Bute and Inch Marnoch, the craggy 
 of the Kyles, the still shores of Cowal and Can- 
tire, lay steeped in a soft autumnal haze, with the rich 
colors of heather and fern only half glimmering through 
the silver veil. It was like a voyage into dreamland, so 
beautiful was the land and sea and sky around them, and 
so still. 

..Such. was the manner of their setting out. And in 



!i8 A DAUGHTER OF HETH. 

the evening they drew near the little harbor of Tarbert, 
and all the west was aglow as if with . Even after 
they had dropped anchor, and the mountains of Cowal 
were black as night, there was a pale glare over the sky 
and out on the broad bosom of the loch. Then through 
the pallor of the twilight came the stars, growing and 
burning in the darkness, until Coquette thought they 
seemed just above the points of the tall masts. She stil* 
lingered on deck, when all the others had gone