ion which Rose
was inclined to resent. Graeme did not resent it, and Rose was ready to
forgive Fanny's triumph, since Fanny was so ready to share her delight
at the thought of Mrs Snow's visit. As for Will, he saw nothing in the
whole circle of events to disturb anybody's equanimity or to regret,
except, perhaps, that the attraction of the McIntyre children and cows
had proved irresistible to Nelly at last. And Arthur congratulated
himself on the good sense and good management of his little wife, firmly
believing in the wisdom of the deluded little creature, never doubting
that her skill and will were equal to the triumphant encounter with any
possible domestic emergency.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

They came at last. Arthur and Will met them on the other side of the
river, and Graeme and Rose would fain have done the same, but because of
falling rain, and because of other reasons, it was thought not best for
them to go.

It was a very quiet meeting--a little restrained and tearful just at
first; but that wore away, and Janet's eyes rested on the bairns from
whom she had been so long separated with love and wonder and earnest
scrutiny. They had all changed, she said. Arthur was like his father;
Will was like both father and mother. As for Rosie--

"Miss Graeme, my dear," said Mrs Snow, "I think Rosie is nearly as
bonny as her sister Marian," and her eye rested on the girl's blushing
face with a tender admiration that was quite as much for the dead as for
the living. Graeme had changed least of all, she said; and yet in a
little she found herself wondering whether, after all, Graeme had not
changed more than any of them.

As for Fanny she found herself in danger of being overlooked in the
general joy and excitement, and went about jingling her keys, and rather
ostentatiously hastening the preparations for the refreshment of the
travellers. She need not have been afraid. Her time was coming. Even
now she encountered an odd glance or two from Mr Snow, who was walking
off his excitement in the hall. That there was admiration mingled with
the curiosity they expressed was evident, and Fanny relented. What
might soon have become a pout on her pretty lip changed to a smile.
They were soon on very friendly terms with each other, and before Janet
had got through with her first tremulous recognition of her bairns, Mr
Snow fancied he had made a just estimate of the qualities--good--and not
so good--of the pretty li