left behind at her departure all that ever she had of me. It was
the blow that I felt sorest, perhaps because it was the last; and I fell
upon that pile of clothing and behaved myself more foolish than I care
to tell of.

Late in the night, in a strict frost, and my teeth chattering, I came
again by some portion of my manhood and considered with myself. The
sight of these poor frocks and ribbons, and her shifts, and the clocked
stockings, was not to be endured; and if I were to recover any constancy
of mind, I saw I must be rid of them ere the morning. It was my first
thought to have made a fire and burned them; but my disposition has
always been opposed to wastery, for one thing; and for another, to have
burned these things that she had worn so close upon her body, seemed in
the nature of a cruelty. There was a corner cupboard in that chamber;
there I determined to bestow them. The which I did and made it a long
business, folding them with very little skill indeed but the more care;
and sometimes dropping them with my tears. All the heart was gone out of
me, I was weary as though I had run miles, and sore like one beaten;
when, as I was folding a kerchief that she wore often at her neck, I
observed there was a corner neatly cut from it. It was a kerchief of a
very pretty hue, on which I had frequently remarked; and once that she
had it on, I remembered telling her (by way of a banter) that she wore
my colours. There came a glow of hope and like a tide of sweetness in my
bosom; and the next moment I was plunged back in a fresh despair. For
there was the corner crumpled in a knot and cast down by itself in
another part of the floor.

But when I argued with myself, I grew more hopeful. She had cut that
corner off in some childish freak that was manifestly tender; that she
had cast it away again was little to be wondered at; and I was inclined
to dwell more upon the first than upon the second, and to be more
pleased that she had ever conceived the idea of that keepsake, than
concerned because she had flung it from her in an hour of natural
resentment.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXIX

WE MEET IN DUNKIRK

Altogether, then, I was scarce so miserable the next days but what I had
many hopeful and happy snatches; threw myself with a good deal of
constancy upon my studies; and made out to endure the time till Alan
should arrive, or I might hear word of Catriona by the means of James
More. I