iage I could make no impression. "Time
enough," he would say, or "The other person has not turned up," and I
was getting uneasy, for you and I are not so young as once we were.
You may fancy my satisfaction, therefore, when George came down from
Drumtochty last August and told me he had found the "other person," and
that she was my old friend Jack Carnegie's daughter. Of course I urged
him to make sure of himself, but now he has had ample opportunities
during your two visits, and he is quite determined that his wife is to
be Kate or nobody.

It goes without saying that the Countess and I heartily approve Hay's
choice and are charmed with Kate, who is as bonnie as she is
high-spirited. She sustains the old traditions of her family, who were
ever strong and true, and she has a clever tongue, which neither you
nor I have, Jack, nor Hay either, good fellow though he be, and that is
not a bad thing for a woman nowadays. They would make a handsome pair,
as they ought, with such good-looking fathers, eh?

Well, I am coming to my point, for in those circumstances I want your
help. What Miss Carnegie thinks of Hay we don't know, and unless I 'm
much mistaken she will decide for herself, but is it too much to ask
you--if you can--to say a word for him? You are quite right to think
that no man is worthy of Kate, but she is bound to marry some day--I
can't conceive how you have kept her so long--and I am certain Hay will
make a good husband, and he is simply devoted to her. If she refuses
him, I am afraid he will not marry, and then--well, grant I'm selfish,
but it would be a calamity to us.

Don't you think that it looks like an arrangement of Providence to
unite two families that have shared common dangers and common faith in
the past, and to establish a Carnegie once more as lady of Drumtochty?
Now that is all, and it's a long screed, but the matter lies near my
heart, and we shall wait the answers from you both with anxiety.

Yours faithfully,

KILSPINDIE.

Kate's letter was much shorter, and was written in big schoolboy hand
with great care.

DEAR MISS CARNEGIE,--They say that a woman always knows when a man
loves her, and if so you will not be astonished at this letter. From
that day I saw you in Drumtochty Kirk I have loved you, and every week
I love you more. My mother is the only other woman I have ever cared
for, and that is different. Will you be my wife? I often wanted to
ask you when you were wi