or the situation she occupied in her father's
household. Of this youthful pair, it was generally surmised in the
neighbourhood, that the attachment which had begun in their school days,
had "grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength,"
till it had ripened into love.

Such surmises have often been made before, upon occasions where there
was not even the shadow of a foundation for them. But, in the present
instance, the gossips and tattlers were not so far wrong; for the two
were really lovers, though, from the implacable temper of Mr. Black,
they found it necessary to conceal their affection; and, for two years
more, in as far as an open confession is concerned, they did conceal it.
They were not, however, wholly without their "stolen interviews," which,
though "few and far between," with the additional disadvantage of being
_short_, were, in this case, sufficient to keep the flame alive. They
also found means of occasionally exchanging notices of each other upon
_paper_--that _dernier resort_ of all unfortunate lovers.

Catherine Roger, who had hitherto been thought and spoken of as the
_lassie Kate_, was now beginning to expand into the young woman,
and--smitten with her charms, as wise people began to suppose--Andrew
Sharp, one of Mr. Black's farm-servants, had, of late, become rather a
regular visitor at her mother's. At first, he came with a quantity of
worsted, "to see if she would knit a pair of stockings for him;" next,
he "came to see if she would darn the heels of a pair of stockings;"
and, by and by, he sometimes ventured to "come owre, just to speer for
her." While his business was thus, to all appearance, exclusively with
the mother, he frequently found an opportunity of stealing a look at the
daughter, or, more fortunate still, of exchanging a word with her, as if
by the by. It is probable, however, that the former--

"Wi' a woman's wyles, could spy
What made the youth sae bashfu an' sae grave;"

and, whatever her fears might be, there is no reason to doubt that she
was

"Weel pleased to see her bairn respected like the lave."

Andrew, though young, was by no means deficient in shrewdness; he was
naturally of an obliging turn--a quiet conscientious lad--a great
favourite with his young mistress, and he was sometimes made the bearer
of those paper messengers which went between the lovers.

The leases of both farms were now within a year of being out, and both
the farmer