ross her
face, and because of the fond craving of his own heart, his sympathy,
strangely enough, went out to the young man who had spoken, rather than
to her sentiment of contempt. The angel of human loves alone could tell
why John Bates loved this girl after all that had passed, but he did
love her.

And perceiving now that she had told what she had to tell, he turned his
mind to that something that lay on his mind to say to her. With the
burden of the thought he rose up again from his rude seat, and he held
up his head to look at her as with effort; she was so tall, that he
still must needs look up.

"All's said that need be said, Sissy, between us two." His voice was
almost hard because he would not betray his wistfulness. "Ye have chosen
your own way o' life, and I willna raise a cry to alter it; I'm no fit
for that. If I could shape ye to my pleasure, I see now I'd make a poor
thing of it. Ye can do better for yourself if--if"--his square jaw
seemed almost to tremble--"if ye'll have a heart in ye, lassie. Forgive
me if I seem to instruct ye, for I've no thought in me now that I could
make ye better if I tried."

He stopped again, and she saw his weak frame moving nervously; she
thought it was for want of breath.

"You're awfully ill, Mr. Bates," she said, in dulness repeating words
that she seemed to have got by heart.

Her stupid pity stung him into further speech.

"Oh, lassie, it's not because I'm fond of ye that I say it, for what
does it matter about me, but because of all the men in the world that
love women. It's God's voice through them to you; and (although I can't
rightly frame it into words) because God set men and women in families,
and gave them to have affections, I tell ye the soul in which the pride
o' life, or pleasure, or the like o' that, takes the place of the
affections is a lost soul." Again his harsh mouth trembled, and the
words came with effort. "Sissy Cameron, ye've not known a mother nor a
sister, and your father was hard, and I who loved ye was worse than a
brute, and I can't rightly say what I would; but when I'm gone, look
round ye; lassie, at the best women ye know that are wives and mothers,
and if ye can't greet at the things they greet at, and if ye laugh at
things they don't laugh at, and if ye don't fear to do the things they
fear, then, even if your cleverness should make ye queen o' the whole
world, God pity ye!"

"Yes, Mr. Bates," she said, just as she used to when sh