So this was the
housemate who was to make them all young again with her youth and
liveliness. Decidedly he must get Greenoak to invent some pretext for
changing their quarters. Then the comic side struck him. Compared with
himself, no doubt old Hesketh regarded this weird person, who talked
broad Scotch, as "young."

"You are very energetic," he said pleasantly, for she had resumed her
dusting. "Not at all tired after your trek, eh?"

"A'm never that," was the decisive reply.

"Well, your uncle will appreciate your energy at any rate. We men, left
to ourselves, are sure to let things of that sort slide,"--referring to
her undertaking.

"Ma--what?"

"Your uncle, Mr Hesketh."

"The laddie _is_ daft," she answered with decision. "Mon--but A have
nae ony uncle."

Dick stared, and was destined to stare more in about a second. A faint
rustle behind him, combined with what sounded suspiciously like a
suppressed gurgle, caused him to wheel sharply round.

Framed in the doorway stood a girl--an exceedingly pretty girl. She had
a sweet oval face, dark hair, and well-marked brows, and lustrous eyes
to match. These now seemed sparkling and dancing with merriment.

"I am Mr Hesketh's niece," began this wholly unexpected vision of
beauty. "I suppose we are here earlier than we were expected," and
there was a suspicious unsteadiness in the tones, as if the speaker were
gulping down an irresistible peal of laughter.

"Eh, but A do believe he's been takkin' me for yeerself, Miss Hazel,"
spoke the red-haired woman; and poor Dick, now dead certain that the
new-comer had overheard the foregoing dialogue, looked and felt about as
big an ass as he had ever looked and felt in his life.

"It's my old nurse, Elsie McGunn," explained the girl. "We've been
travelling ever so many hours, and now she'll be taking the cart home
again after breakfast, and even then can't sit still and rest."

"Indeed, I was just admiring such a display of energy," said Dick,
pleasantly.

"Deed, laddie, and ye were just admiring nothing at a' aboot me,"
retorted the plain-spoken Scotswoman, but quite good-naturedly.

The answer made opportunity for the girl to express her stifled
feelings, and under cover of it she went off into the hearty merry peal
of laughter whose main cause was the dialogue she had overheard between
Dick Selmes and her unattractive retainer.

"You have been here before, I suppose, Miss Hesketh?" began Dick.

The