rain splashed against the narrow panes of the The 

 window, in whose inset stood three pots of Children 

 geranium whose scarlet flowers caught the red an( j ,. 

 flicker of the fire-flaucht and warmed the grey Clan of 

 dusk gathering without. Peace. 



Later, we began to speak of the things of 

 which her son John and I had talked on the 

 moor : and then of much else in connection 

 with the legendary lore of the birds and beasts 

 of the hills and high moorlands. 



As it was so much easier for her (and so 

 far more vivid and idiomatic) she spoke in 

 Gaelic, delighted to find one who could under- 

 stand the ancient speech : for in that part of 

 the country, though in the Highlands, no 

 Gaelic is spoken, or only a few words or 

 phrases connected with sport, sheep-driving, 

 and the like. I had won her heart by saying 

 to her soon after the tea — up /to which time 

 she had spoken in the slow and calculated but 

 refined Highland-English of the north-west — 

 Tha mi cinnteach gu bheil sibh aois mhor . . . 

 ' i am sure that you have the great age on 

 you.' She had feared that because I had ' the 

 English way ' I would not know, or remember, 

 or care to remember, the old tongue : and she 

 took my hand and stroked it while she said 

 with a quiet dignity of pleasure, Is taitneach 

 learn nach 'eil \ur Gaidhlig air meirgeadh . . . 



247 



