It was the first time she had seen her husband
smile since their troubles, she said. The dark cloud was lifting, and
wee Katie's smile would bring sunshine again. I was a favourite with
her a long time after that, but we have fallen out of acquaintance of
late."

"Which is a great mistake on your part," said her brother.

"Yes; I hope she will be glad to see us. She will be glad to see you,
Mr Maxwell."

"She will be glad to see us all," said Clifton.

CHAPTER SIX.

A VISIT TO YTHAN BRAE.

It was a great deal later in the afternoon than it ought to have been
for the first visit of the minister, and the chances were he would have
been told so in any other house in the parish. But Mrs Fleming
welcomed him warmly, and all the more warmly, she intimated, that he
came in such good company. The lateness of the hour made this
difference in the order of events: they had their tea first, and their
visit afterward; a very good arrangement, for their tramp through the
fields and woods had made them hungry, and Mrs Fleming's oat-cakes and
honey were delicious. There were plenty of other good things on the
table, but the honey and oat-cakes were the characteristic part of the
meal, never omitted in Mrs Fleming's preparations for visitors. She
had not forgotten the old Scottish fashion of pressing the good things
upon her guests, but there was not much of this needed now, and she
looked on with much enjoyment.

"Will you go ben the house, or bide still where you are?" asked she,
when tea was over and they still lingered. "Ben the house"--in the
parlour there were tall candles burning, and other arrangements made,
but no one seemed inclined to move. The large kitchen in which they
were sitting was, at this time of the year, the pleasantest place in the
house. Later the cooking-stove, which in summer stood in the outer
kitchen would be brought in, and the great fire-place would be shut up,
but to-night there was a fire of logs on the wide hearth. It flickered
and sparkled, and lighted up the dark face of old Mr Fleming, and the
fair face of Miss Elizabeth, as they sat on opposite sides of the
hearth, and made shadows in the corners where the shy little Flemings
had gathered. It lighted, too, the beautiful old face of the
grandmother as she sat in her white cap and kerchief, with folded hands,
making, to the minister's pleased eye, a fair picture of the homely
scene.

And so they sat still. Katie and her mot