mocking him.

"The more fool you!" says he. "Then ye'll can tell her that I
recommended it; that'll set her to the laughing; and I wouldnae wonder
but what that was the next best. But see to the pair of them! If I
didnae feel just sure of the lassie, and that she was awful pleased and
chief with Alan, I would think there was some kind of hocus-pocus about
yon."

"And is she so pleased with ye, then, Alan?" I asked.

"She thinks a heap of me," says he. "And I'm no like you: I'm one that
can tell. That she does--she thinks a heap of Alan. And troth! I'm
thinking a good deal of him mysel; and with your permission, Shaws, I'll
be getting a wee yont amang the bents, so that I can see what way James
goes."

One after another went, till I was left alone beside the breakfast
table; James to Dunkirk, Alan dogging him, Catriona up the stairs to her
own chamber. I could very well understand how she should avoid to be
alone with me; yet was none the better pleased with it for that, and
bent my mind to entrap her to an interview before the men returned. Upon
the whole, the best appeared to me to do like Alan. If I was out of view
among the sand hills, the fine morning would decoy her out; and once I
had her in the open, I could please myself.

No sooner said than done; nor was I long under the bield of a hillock
before she appeared at the inn door, looked here and there, and (seeing
nobody) set out by a path that led directly seaward, and by which I
followed her. I was in no haste to make my presence known; the further
she went I made sure of the longer hearing to my suit; and the ground
being all sandy, it was easy to follow her unheard. The path rose and
came at last to the head of a knowe. Thence I had a picture for the
first time of what a desolate wilderness that inn stood hidden in; where
was no man to be seen, nor any house of man, except just Bazin's and the
windmill. Only a little further on, the sea appeared and two or three
ships upon it, pretty as a drawing. One of these was extremely close in
to be so great a vessel; and I was aware of a shock of new suspicion,
when I recognized the trim of the _Seahorse_. What should an English
ship be doing so near in France? Why was Alan brought into her
neighbourhood, and that in a place so far from any hope of rescue? and
was it by accident, or by design, that the daughter of James More should
walk that day to the seaside?

Presently I came forth behind her in the front of