inister during his brief
visits. She had kept to her room with a nervous shrinking from
strangers; but she had watched him sometimes, between the services,
pacing up and down the garden as though he were thinking deeply.

He was a tall, broad-shouldered young man, with a plain,
strong-featured face as rugged as his own mountains; but his keen gray
eyes could look soft enough at times, as pretty Lilian Graham knew
well; for the willful little beauty had been unable to say no to him
as she did her other lovers. It was not easy to bid Fergus Duncan go
about his business when he had made up his mind to bide, and as the
young minister had decidedly made up his mind that Lilian Graham
should be his promised wife, he got his way in that; and Lilian grew
so proud and fond of him that she never found out how completely he
ruled her, and how seldom she had her own will.

Fay heard with some dismay that Mr. Fergus was coming to live at the
Manse after Christmas; she would have to see him at meals, and in the
evening, and would have no excuse for retiring into her room. Now, if
any visitor came to the Manse, Lilian Graham, or one of her
sisters--for there were seven strapping lasses at the farm, and not
one of them wed yet, as Mrs. Duncan would say--Fay would take refuge
in the kitchen, or sit in the minister's room--anything to avoid the
curious eyes and questioning that would have awaited her in the
parlor; but now if Mr. Fergus lived there, Lilian Graham would be
always there too.

Mr. Fergus was rather curious about Aunt Jeanie's mysterious guest. He
had caught sight of Mrs. St. Clair once or twice at the window, and
had been much struck with her appearance of youth; and his remark,
after first seeing her in the little kirk, had been, "Why, Aunt
Jeanie, Mrs. St. Clair looks quite a child; how could any one calling
himself a man ill-use a little creature like that;" for Mrs. Duncan
had carefully infused into her nephew's ear a little fabled account of
Fay's escape from her husband, to which he listened with Scotch
caution and a good deal of incredulity. "Depend upon it, there are
faults on both sides," he returned, obstinately. "We do not deal in
villains now-a-days. You are so soft, Aunt Jeanie; you always believe
what people tell you. I should like to have a talk with Mrs. St.
Clair; indeed, I think it my duty as a minister to remonstrate with a
young wife when she has left her husband."

"Oh, you will frighten the bit la