me way must
have caused that maid to disappear, and had then forestalled me by
helping Barrie into my car, tucking her comfortably in with the prettier
of my two rugs.

I was just in time to hear him say "we shall meet"--but where and when
the meeting was to be, I did not know. That was the last of him for the
moment, however, as I had secured the two Vannecks, and we lumbered off
along the good, clear road to Linlithgow. Now it was "up to me" to make
my running with Barrie.

I like driving, though in traffic I am secretly nervous; but as
Blunderbore provides no convenient perch for the chauffeur, and as
Salomon trusts no man except himself, he took the wheel, and I was free
to sit behind with my three guests.

I'd been wondering what Barrie's mood would be, for I felt in my bones
that she was coming with us much against her will. She had not wanted to
leave Edinburgh, and I was sure that she could only have resigned
herself to doing so with Somerled and his Gray Dragon. I asked myself
whether she guessed, or whether Mrs. James had put it into her head,
that Aline and I had combined against what the girl no doubt believed to
be her "interests." I thought it not improbable that she would openly
show her distaste for the trip. As we went on, however, I began to
realize that Barrie had changed subtly in the days since meeting her
mother. She seemed suddenly to have grown up, to have become a woman.

Was it the heart-breaking disappointment Mrs. Bal's reception had given
her? Or was it the five proposals of marriage flung at her head by those
mad young men who were now--thank goodness!--being left behind us, to
"dree their own wierds?" Or was it something quite different--something
which she and the heather moon alone knew?

In any case, she was quiet, even dignified in her youthful way, very
polite and agreeable to the Vannecks and to me. I might have flattered
myself that she was happy enough, and glad of my society, if I hadn't
reflected that to sulk visibly would have been to blame Mrs. Bal.
Already I knew that loyalty was one of Barrie's everyday virtues.
Barbara could do no wrong!

While the road (though good, and historic every step of the way)
remained unalluring to the eye, we chatted about Edinburgh, Barrie
rejoicing in having seen as much as she had before leaving the town. She
had browsed a little among the thrilling shops of Princes Street. With
one eye, so to speak, cocked up at the towering Castle Rock