r in his sair trouble."

Emmie thanked her, and rejoiced that the Colonel was out of harm's way.

"Deed, aye, ma'am, he's weel awa'. He has sic a wark wi' thae laddies
an' their bit bairn o' a mither, I'll no say he'd been easy keepit out
o' the thick o' the distress, an' it's may be no surprisin', after
a' that's come and gane, that he seeks to take siccan a lift of the
concern. I've mony a time heard tell that the auld General, Sir Stephen,
was as good as a faither to him, when he was sick an' lonesome, puir
lad, in yon far awa' land o' wild beasts an' savages."

"Would it not be what he might like, to take in the children out of the
way of infection?"

"'Deed, Miss Ermine," with a significant curtsey, "I'm thinkin' ye
ken my maister Colin amaist as weel as I do. He's the true son of his
forbears, an' Gowanbrae used to be always open in the auld lord's time,
that's his grandfather Foreby, that he owes so much kindness to the
General."

Ermine further suggested that it was a pity to wait for a letter
from the Colonel, and Tibbie quite agreed. She "liked the nurse as an
extraordinar' douce woman, not like the fine English madams that Miss
Isabel--that's Mrs. Comyn Menteith--put about her bairns; and as to
room, the sergeant and the tailor bodie did not need much, and the
masons were only busy in the front parlour."

"Masons?" asked Ermine.

"On, aye? didna ye ken it's for the new room, that is to be built out
frae the further parlour, and what they ca' the bay to the drawin'-room,
just to mak' the house more conformable like wi' his name and forbears.
I never thocht but that ye'd surely seen the plans and a', Miss Ermine,
an' if so be it was Maister Colin's pleasure the thing suld be private,
I'm real vext to hae said a word; but ye'll may be no let on to him,
ma'am, that ye ken onything about it."

"Those down-stairs rooms so silently begun," thought Ermine. "How fixed
his intention must be? Oh, how will it end? What would be best for him?
And how can I think of myseif, while all, even my Ailie, are in distress
and danger?"

Ermine had, however, a good deal to think of, for not only had she
Colin's daily letter to answer, but she had Conrade, Leoline, and Hubert
with her for several hours every day, and could not help being amused by
Rose's ways with them, little grown-up lady as she was compared to
them. Luckily girls were such uncommon beings with them as to be rather
courted than despised, and Rose, havin