upon the gold, and, as she
did so, she stooped and touched the brown wrinkled hand with her lips.

"Indeed, it is not pride," she said, at last. "You must not think it's
pride. But I am only a child; and it is my aunt who must accept and
thank you for your kindness."

Nancy's face was a sight to see. At first she could have been angry;
but her look changed and softened strangely at the touch of Lilias's
lips upon her hand.

"My dear," said she gently, "it's easy to say `my aunt,' but it is you
who have borne the burden for her this while, poor helpless body!"

"Yes," said Lilias, eagerly. "Just because she is helpless, we must
consider her the more; and she might not be pleased at my speaking to
you first. But if we really need it, we will come to you; for you are a
true friend. And you won't be angry?" she added, wistfully, as she held
out her hand for good-bye.

"Angry with you! My little gentle lammie!"

Her tones, so unlike Nancy's usually sharp accents, brought back the
child's tears with a rush, and she turned and ran away. Nancy stood
watching her as she went over the stepping-stones and up the bank, and
she tried to walk quietly on. But as soon as she was out of sight she
ran swiftly away, that she might find a hiding-place where she could cry
her tears out without danger of being seen.

"It's the clearing-shower, I think; and I must get it over before I go
home. If Archie were to see me crying, I should have to tell him all;
and I'm sure I don't know what would happen then."

As the thought passed through her mind, a footstep sounded on the rocky
pathway, and her heart leaped up at the sound of her brother's voice.
In a moment he was close beside her. She might have touched him with
her outstretched hand. But the last drops of the clearing-shower were
still falling.

"And I'm not going to spoil his pleasant Sabbath with my tears," she
said to herself. So she lay still on the brown heather, quite unseen in
the deepening gloaming.

"Lily!" cried Archie, pausing to listen--"Lily!" He grasped a branch of
the rowan-tree, and swung himself down into the torrent's bed. "Lily!
Are you here, Lily?"

She listened till the sound of his footsteps died away, and then swung
herself down as he had done. Dipping her handkerchief into the water of
the burn, she said to herself, as she wiped the tear-stains from her
face, "I'll be all the brighter to-morrow for this summer shower." And
she laughed