sad.

"Yesterday--a few hours ago--that remark would have given me new hope--new
courage; but since then I have learned too much."

The old man, skilled in the human heart, did not attempt to argue in such
a matter.

"Too early to give in, my boy."

"I am not of a giving-in kind," replied the young man earnestly. "But,
after all, it is wise to realise a truth. And when a man, though he is
young, feels as I do--as I have felt ever since yesterday, when I first
saw Mimi's eyes--his heart jumps. He does not need to learn things. He
knows."

There was silence in the room, during which the twilight stole on
imperceptibly. It was Adam who again broke the silence.

"Do you know, uncle, if we have any second sight in our family?"

"No, not that I ever heard about. Why?"

"Because," he answered slowly, "I have a conviction which seems to answer
all the conditions of second sight."

"And then?" asked the old man, much perturbed.

"And then the usual inevitable. What in the Hebrides and other places,
where the Sight is a cult--a belief--is called 'the doom'--the court from