kind of worship.

The evening before his departure for Bodyfauld--whence his grandmother
had arranged that he should start for Aberdeen, in order that he might
have the company of Mr. Lammie, whom business drew thither about the
same time--as he was having his last lesson, Mrs. Forsyth left the room.
Thereupon Robert, who had been dejected all day at the thought of the
separation from Miss St. John, found his heart beating so violently that
he could hardly breathe. Probably she saw his emotion, for she put her
hand on the keys, as if to cover it by showing him how some movement was
to be better effected. He seized her hand and lifted it to his lips.
But when he found that instead of snatching it away, she yielded it, nay
gently pressed it to his face, he burst into tears, and dropped on his
knees, as if before a goddess.

'Hush, Robert! Don't be foolish,' she said, quietly and tenderly. 'Here
is my aunt coming.'

The same moment he was at the piano again, playing My Bonny Lady Ann,
so as to astonish Miss St. John, and himself as well. Then he rose, bade
her a hasty good-night, and hurried away.

A strange conflict arose in his mind at the prospect of leaving the
old place, on every house of whose streets, on every swell of whose
surrounding hills he left the clinging shadows of thought and feeling.
A faintly purpled mist arose, and enwrapped all the past, changing even
his grayest troubles into tales of fairyland, and his deepest griefs
into songs of a sad music. Then he thought of Shargar, and what was to
become of him after he was gone. The lad was paler and his eyes were
redder than ever, for he had been weeping in secret. He went to his
grandmother and begged that Shargar might accompany him to Bodyfauld.

'He maun bide at hame an' min' his beuks,' she answered; 'for he winna
hae them that muckle langer. He maun be doin' something for himsel'.'

So the next morning the boys parted--Shargar to school, and Robert to
Bodyfauld--Shargar left behind with his desolation, his sun gone down
in a west that was not even stormy, only gray and hopeless, and Robert
moving towards an east which reflected, like a faint prophecy, the west
behind him tinged with love, death, and music, but mingled the colours
with its own saffron of coming dawn.

When he reached Bodyfauld he marvelled to find that all its glory had
returned. He found Miss Lammie busy among the rich yellow pools in her
dairy, and went out into the garden, now