Jane.
We agreed once that it would be too expensive, but now I could let you
have another hundred a year."

"As if I would allow that, Alick! No, indeed! Lord Keith means you to
have all my share."

"Does he? There are more words than one to that question. And pray is he
going to provide properly for his poor daughter in the West Indies?"

"I hope to induce him to take her into favour."

"Eh? and to make him give up to Colin Keith that Auchinvar estate that
he ought to have had when Archie Keith died?"

"You may be sure I shall do my best for the Colonel. Indeed, I do think
Lord Keith will consent to the marriage now."

"You have sacrificed yourself on that account?" he said, with irony in
his tone, that he could have repented the next moment, so good-humoured
was her reply, "That is understood, so give me the merit."

"The merit of, for his sake, becoming a grandmother. You have thought of
the daughters? Mrs. Comyn Menteith must be older than yourself."

"Three years," said Bessie, in his own tone of acceptance of startling
facts, "and I shall have seven grandchildren in all, so you see you must
respect me."

"Do you know her sentiments?"

"I know what they will be when we have met. Never fear, Alick. If she
were not married it might be serious, being so, I have no fears."

Then came a silence, till a halt at the last station before Bath roused
Alick again.

"Bessie," he said, in the low voice the stoppage permitted, "don't think
me unkind. I believe you have waited on purpose to leave me no time
for expostulation, and what I have said has sounded the more harsh in
consequence."

"No, Alick," she said, "you are a kind brother in all but the
constructions you put upon my doings. I think it would be better if
there were more difference between our ages. You are a young guardian,
over anxious, and often morbidly fanciful about me during your illness.
I think we shall be happier together when you no longer feel yourself
responsible."

"The tables turned," muttered Alick.

"I am prepared for misconstruction," added Bessie. "I know it will be
supposed to be the title; the estate it cannot be, for you know how poor
a property it is; but I do not mean to care for the world. Your opinion
is a different thing, and I thought you would have seen that I could
not be insensible to such dignified kindness, and the warmth of a nature
that many people think cold."

"I don't like set speeches, Bessie."

"Then bel