e to sit here in company till her return; upon which, without either
word or look from you, she and I are to go forth again to hold our talk.
If she can satisfy me that she is willing to this step, I will then make
it; and if she cannot, I will not."

He leaped out of his seat like a man stung. "I can spy your manoeuvre,"
he cried; "you would work upon her to refuse!"

"Maybe ay, and maybe no," said I. "That is the way it is to be,
whatever."

"And if I refuse?" cries he.

"Then, Mr. Drummond, it will have to come to the throat-cutting," said
I.

What with the size of the man, his great length of arm in which he came
near rivalling his father, and his reputed skill at weapons, I did not
use this word without some trepidation, to say nothing at all of the
circumstance that he was Catriona's father. But I might have spared
myself alarms. From the poorness of my lodging--he does not seem to have
remarked his daughter's dresses, which were indeed all equally new to
him--and from the fact that I had shown myself averse to lend, he had
embraced a strong idea of my poverty. The sudden news of my estate
convinced him of his error, and he had made but the one bound of it on
this fresh venture, to which he was now so wedded, that I believe he
would have suffered anything rather than fall to the alternative of
fighting.

A little while longer he continued to dispute with me until I hit upon a
word that silenced him.

"If I find you so averse to let me see the lady by herself," said I, "I
must suppose you have very good grounds to think me in the right about
her unwillingness."

He gabbled some kind of an excuse.

"But all this is very exhausting to both of our tempers," I added, "and
I think we would do better to preserve a judicious silence."

The which we did until the girl returned, and I must suppose would have
cut a very ridiculous figure, had there been any there to view us.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXVIII

IN WHICH I AM LEFT ALONE

I opened the door to Catriona and stopped her on the threshold.

"Your father wishes us to take our walk," said I.

She looked to James More, who nodded, and at that, like a trained
soldier, she turned to go with me.

We took one of our old ways, where we had gone often together, and been
more happy than I can tell of in the past. I came a half a step behind,
so that I could watch her unobserved. The knocking of her little shoes
upon the wa