," said Kate, with emphasis, "if they help those whom they
love. . . . Father, would you be quite satisfied with Lord Hay for a
son-in-law, and . . . would you let us live with you here as much as we
could?"

"Kate, if you are to marry--and I knew it must come some day--I have
not seen a more honest man; but you are forgetting that Tochty Lodge
will soon be out of our hands; I 'll have to get a bungalow somewhere,
not too far away from Muirtown, I hope."

"If I marry Lord Hay, Tochty Lodge will not be sold, and you will never
be disturbed, dad. We shall not be separated more than we can help,"
and Kate caressed the General.

"Do you mean, lassie," said the General, with a sudden suspicion,
lilting her face till he saw her eyes, "that you are going to accept
Hay in order to keep the old home? You must not do this, for it would
not . . . don't you see that I . . . could not accept this at your
hands?"

"You cannot prevent your daughter marrying Lord Hay if your daughter so
decides, but as yet she is in doubt, very great doubt, and so I am
going for a long walk on the big moor, and you . . . well, why not take
lunch with the Padre at the manse?"

"Hay is a straight young fellow, and Kate would supply what he wants--a
dash of go, you know"--so the General was summing up the situation to
his old friend; "but my girl is not to marry Hay or any other man for
my sake, and that is what she thinks of doing."

"Did it ever occur to you, Carnegie, that Kate had a . . . well, kindly
feeling for any other man?"

"Plenty of fellows tried their luck: first subalterns, then
aides-de-camp, and at last commissioners; it was no easy affair to be
her father," and Carnegie gave Davidson a comic look. "I used to scold
her, but upon my word I don't know she was to blame, and I am certain
she did not care for one of them; in fact, she laughed at them all
till--well, in fact, I had to interfere."

"And since you came to the Lodge"--the Doctor spoke with
meaning--"besides Lord Hay?"

"Why, there is just yourself"--the Doctor nodded with much
appreciation--"and that Free Kirkman. . . . Davidson, do you mean
that--oh, nonsense, man; she was quite angry one day when I suggested a
parson. Kate has always said that was the last man she would marry."

"That is an evidence she will."

The General stared at the oracle, and went on:

"She has made his life miserable at the Lodge with her tongue; she
delighted in teasing him. Your id