United States or Niue ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Ruddy had a glimpse, one glimpse, that day, the day that Ian came back. Ruddy said to me that day, 'If you had lived a thousand years ago you would have had a thousand lovers. ... And it is true by all the gods of all the worlds, it is true. Pleasure, beauty, is all I ever cared for pleasure, beauty, and the Jasmine-flower. And Ian and Ian, yes, Ian!
"Why, the wedding of Mr Ravenshaw's daughter." "Oh no, Mr Ian. It would be a strange time for a wedding. But it's all fixed to come off whenever the flood goes down. And she do seem happy about it. You see, sir, they was throw'd a good deal together here of late, so it was sort of natural they should make it up, and the master he is quite willin'." This was enough.
But to lower the log gently from the boulder on to this trigger without setting it off was a matter of extreme difficulty, requiring great care and much time, for the weight of the log was great, and if it should once slip to the ground, ten Ian Macdonalds could not have raised it up again.
Alexander and Ian, coming down to the harbor edge at a specified place, found there the waiting boat with two rowers. It hung before them on the just-lit water. "Now, Old Steadfast, farewell!" said Ian. "I am going a little farther. Step in, man!" The boat drove across, under the moon, to the Seawing.
They took pains to show that they considered the crofter's son a common brat, and resented the meenister's' expecting them to do anything for his future, just because his name happened to be MacDonald, and he lived in a hut on a remote point of their island. Ian didn't lose courage, though; and soon after the great snub he contrived to work his way somehow to Edinburgh.
"Send-what-who-I don't understand you, Ian!" returned the chief, bewildered. "Oh, well, never mind!" said Ian. "You will think of it presently!" And therewith he turned his face to the wall, as if he would go to sleep.
If one should take a fresh green leaf and pass over it a hot iron, the change it made might represent the change in Thora. Jean Hay's letter had been the hot iron passed over her. She had been told of her father's decision, but she clung passionately to her faith in Ian and her claim on her father's love and mercy. "Father will do right," she said, "and if he does, Ian will come home with him."
It was truth, and higher truth, he was always seeking. The sadness which coloured his deepest individuality, only one thing could ever remove the conscious presence of the Eternal. This is true of all sadness, but Ian knew it. He overtook Alister on his way to the barley-field.
Ian Vohr from the first moment he appears, till the last, is an admirably-drawn and finely-sustained character new, perfectly new to the English reader often entertaining always heroic sometimes sublime. The gray spirit, the Bodach Glas, thrills us with horror. Us! What effect must it have upon those under the influence of the superstitions of the Highlands!
Ian knew all the Scotch lines, he had even full faith in the Caledonian when it was first proposed and could hardly win any attention. "Every one said a railway between England and Scotland would not pay, Mr. Ragnor," said Ian. "I would have said very different," replied Conall. "It would be certain to pay. Why not?"
Word Of The Day