CHAPTER XVIII.
A WINTER IDYLL.
Lady Joan the same day wrote to her brother Borland, now Mergwain, telling him what had taken place.

But it must be some time before she received his answer, for the post from England reached the neighbouring city but intermittently, and was there altogether arrested, so far as Howglen and Muir o' Warlock were concerned.

The laird told her she must have patience, and assured her that to them her presence was welcome.
And now began for Cosmo an episode of enchantment, as wondrous as any dream of tree-top, or summer wave city--for if it was not so full of lighter marvel around, it had at the heart of it a deeper marvel, namely a live and beautiful lady.
She was a girl of nearly eighteen, but looked older--shapely, strong, and graceful.

But both her life-consciousness and her spirits--in some only do the words mean the same thing--had been kept down by the family relations in which she found herself.

Her father loved her with what love was in him, and therefore was jealous; trusted, and therefore enslaved her; could make her useful, and therefore oppressed her.