f he were a changed man to-night, he is no' the man to win Miss
Graeme's heart, and he'll no ask her. He is far more like to ask Rosie;
for I doubt she is not beyond leading him on for her own amusement."

"Oh! Come now, ain't you a little too hard on Rosie," said Mr Snow,
expostulatingly. He could not bear that his pet should be found fault
with. "I call _that_ as cruel a thing as a woman can do, and Rosie
would never do it, I hope."

"Not with a conscious desire to give pain. But she is a bonny creature,
and she is learning her own power, as they all do sooner or later; and
few make so good a use of such power as they might do;" and Mrs Snow
sighed.

"You don't think there is anything in what Mrs Grove said about Graeme
and her friend I have heard so much about?" asked Mr Snow, after a
pause.

"I dinna ken. I would believe it none the readier that yon foolish
woman said it."

"She seems kind of down, though, these days, don't she? She's graver
and quieter than she used to be," said Mr Snow, with some hesitation.
He was not sure how his remark would be taken.

"Oh! well, maybe. She's older for one thing," said his wife, gravely.
"And she has her cares; some of them I see plainly enough, and some of
them, I daresay, she keeps out of sight. But as for Allan Ruthven, it's
not for one woman to say of another that, she has given her heart
unsought. And I am sure of her, that whatever befalls her, she is one
of those that need fear no evil."

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

"It is a wonder to me, Miss Graeme," said Mrs Snow, after one of their
long talks about old times--"it is a wonder to me, that minding
Merleville and all your friends there as well as you do, you should
never have thought it worth your while to come back and see us."

"Worth our while!" repeated Graeme. "It was not indifference that
hindered us, you may be sure of that. I wonder, myself, how it is we
have never gone back again. When we first came here, how Will, and
Rosie, and I, used to plan and dream about it! I may confess, now, how
very homesick we all were--how we longed for you. But, at first, the
expense would have been something to consider, you know; and afterwards,
other things happened to prevent us. We were very near going once or
twice."

"And when was that?" asked Mrs Snow, seemingly intent on her knitting,
but all the time aware that the old shadow was hovering over Graeme.
She did not answer immediately.

"Once was