Now into the stream--right in, over ankles, to
throw the dog off, though I think it is but a common cur, like
its master." As she spoke, she sprang herself into the shallow
stream and ran swiftly up the centre of it, with the brown water
bubbling over her feet and her hand out-stretched toward the
clinging branches of bramble or sapling. Alleyne followed close
at her heels, with his mind in a whirl at this black welcome and
sudden shifting of all his plans and hopes. Yet, grave as were
his thoughts, they would still turn to wonder as he looked at the
twinkling feet of his guide and saw her lithe figure bend this
way and that, dipping under boughs, springing over stones, with a
lightness and ease which made it no small task for him to keep up
with her. At last, when he was almost out of breath, she
suddenly threw herself down upon a mossy bank, between two
holly-bushes, and looked ruefully at her own dripping feet and
bedraggled skirt.
"Holy Mary!" said she, "what shall I do? Mother will keep me to
my chamber for a month, and make me work at the tapestry of the
nine bold knights.
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