ask if Somerled would take me back. "I walked here," I
said, "so as to do my little shopping for Mrs. James, and I came so fast
I've hardly got my breath back."

I was prepared for some excuse to keep me out of the car; but I wronged
Somerled. If any one looked disappointed it was Barrie, not he. He said,
"Certainly; with pleasure," and there was nothing in his voice to
contradict the courtesy of his words.

Thus, with surprising ease, I robbed him of the five minutes alone with
Barrie which he had planned. And though she sat in front with him--as
she had come, perhaps--and I was alone in my glory behind, they could
have no private conversation.

When I went up to bid Aline good-bye (we were starting soon for
Linlithgow and Stirling), I told her of my small triumph; but it gave
her no great pleasure.

"How do we know what he said to the girl going to the train?" she asked
suspiciously. "If there's anything up, it's certain that James woman is
in it. I'm sure she's warned Ian against you and me as well as Mrs. Bal.
She's as shrewd as a gimlet in her own funny way. You've remarked that
yourself. And she worships Ian, and thinks Barrie a little angel
abandoned in a wicked world. So if Ian wanted to talk, he wouldn't mind
Mrs. James. You'd better keep your eyes open this week, and notice
whether the girl seems dreamy and absent-minded, as if she expected
something to happen--something they may have arranged between them this
morning."

I assured Aline that I needed no urging to keep my eyes on Barrie. She
then told me for the second time that she intended joining our party as
soon as Somerled left Edinburgh to follow us, as--she thought--he surely
would. "He wouldn't have gone a step while that girl was here with Mrs.
Bal," she exclaimed, almost fiercely, "but in spite of all he's said
about seeing old landmarks and looking up old friends, he'll be off
after you when you've taken Barrie away. Anyhow, I'm going to see
something of him while he's here if I can, for we are friends! He's
supposed to have forgiven me, and he can't refuse to come and cheer up
the invalid. I shall do the very best I can for myself--and when I find
he means to be off I shall mention casually, as a kind of coincidence,
that I'm going too, the same day, to join you; that you've wired or
something, and that Maud Vanneck and her husband have accepted an
invitation from Morgan Bennett to visit his sister, at that Round House
Mrs. Bal talked of. Pe