Story of the Dominie 363

dare to meet her and her mother on their way to
church, he would walk past with them. He was
accompanied always by a lanky black dog, which
he had brought from a foreign country. He
never signed for any ship without first getting per-
mission to take it with him, and in Harvie they
said it did not know the language of the native
dogs. I have never known a man and dog so
attached to each other.”

““T remember that black dog,” Gavin said. “I
have spoken of it to my mother, and she shud-
dered, as if it had once bitten her.”

“ While Adam strutted by with them,” I con-
tinued, “I would hang back, raging at his assur-
ance or my own timidity; but I lost my next
chance in the same way. In Margaret’s presence
something came over me,a kind of dryness in
the throat that made me dumb. I have known
divinity students stricken in the same way, just as
they were giving out their first text. It is no aid
in getting a kirk or wooing a woman.

“If any one in Harvie recalls me now, it is as
a hobbledehoy who strode along the cliffs, shout-
ing Homer at the sea-mews. With all my learn-
ing, I, who gave Margaret the name of Lalage,
understood women less than any fisherman who
bandied words with them across a boat. I re-
member a Yule night when both Adam and I
were at her mother’s cottage, and as we were
leaving, he had the audacity to kiss Margaret.
She ran out of the room,-and Adam swaggered
off, and, when I recovered from my horror, I
apologised for what he had done. I shall never
forget how her mother looked at me, and said,