Maybe, it's been there waitin', as a man wad say, through a' the weary ages.

Man, but that's awfu'.' And then, breaking off: 'Ye'll no see anither, will ye ?' he asked.
'Yes,' said I.

'I see another very plainly, near the Ross side, where the road comes down--an M.' 'An M,' he repeated very low; and then, again after another pause: 'An' what wad ye make o' that ?' he inquired.
'I had always thought it to mean Mary, sir,' I answered, growing somewhat red, convinced as I was in my own mind that I was on the threshold of a decisive explanation.
But we were each following his own train of thought to the exclusion of the other's.

My uncle once more paid no attention to my words; only hung his head and held his peace; and I might have been led to fancy that he had not heard me, if his next speech had not contained a kind of echo from my own.
'I would say naething o' thae clavers to Mary,' he observed, and began to walk forward.
There is a belt of turf along the side of Aros Bay, where walking is easy; and it was along this that I silently followed my silent kinsman.

I was perhaps a little disappointed at having lost so good an opportunity to declare my love; but I was at the same time far more deeply exercised at the change that had befallen my uncle.