A runlet of water had been led through a hollow trunk into a troughalso hewn from a logclose by Elspeth's bower, where she could make her toilet unperplexed by other eyes.

" It is raining mightily; strong, straight, earnest rain, that harshly lashes the meek earth, that sends angry runlets down the gravel walks, that muddies the gold goblets of the closed crocuses.

There was no sound in the air but the tap of a woodpecker and the trickling of the little runlets from the wet sides.