he cream, but it was necessary at the
moment to get rid of Tammy, who was a remarkably shrewd boy, with very
long ears and a wonderful understanding.

Just as Tammy departed, rather unwillingly it must be told, the carriage
from the house came bowling down the avenue, and Mrs. Macintyre ran out
to open the gate. From her seat by the fire Teen could see over the low
white window-blind that George Fordyce sat in it alone.

'There's something up,' said Mrs. Macintyre. 'D'ye see that?'

She held up a shining half-crown, which in his gracious mood the hopeful
lover had bestowed upon the gatekeeper.

'I wonder if that's to be the Laird o' Bourhill?' she said
meditatively. 'Ye wadna see him as he gaed by?--a very braw man, an'
rich, they say--a Fordyce o' Gorbals Mill. Hae ye heard o' them?'

'Ay, often.' Teen's colour seemed to have deepened, but it might be only
the fire which glowed upon it. 'Ye dinna mean to say that _that_ micht
happen?'

'What for no'?' queried Mrs. Macintyre easily, as she cut a slice from
the loaf and held it on a fork before the fire. 'She's bonnie an' she's
guid, besides being weel tochered. She'll no' want for wooers. I say,
did ye ken Walter Hepburn, that carries on auld Skinny's business noo in
Colquhoun Street?'

'Yes, well enough,' answered Teen slowly.

'There was a time when I wad hae said the twa--him an' Miss Gladys, I
mean--were made for ane anither, but it's no' noo. He seems to hae
forgotten her, an' maybe it's as weel. She maun mak' a braw mairriage,
an' Fordyce is a braw fellow. I wish ye had noticed him.'

'Oh, I've seen him afore,' said Teen, with an evident effort, and
somehow the conversation did not flow very freely, but was purely a
one-sided affair, Teen simply sitting glowering into the fire, with an
expression on her face which indicated that she was only partially
interested in the gatekeeper's cheery talk. It was rather a relief when
Tammy returned with the 'wee jug' full of cream, and his own mind full
of the arrival of a new calf, a great event, which had happened at the
dairy that very afternoon.

Mrs. Macintyre was, on the whole, disappointed with her guest, and saw
her depart after tea without regret. She was altogether too reticent and
silent for that garrulous person's liking. She would have been very much
astonished had she obtained a glimpse into the girl's mind. Never,
indeed, in all her life had Teen Balfour been so troubled and so
anxious. Once or twic