ast on the charity of friends who
were then not very well able to support her, educated by them, loved by
them--does she not owe them a great debt, Mr. Stretton? What would have
become of me without my uncle's care? And, now that I am able to repay
them a little--in various ways"--she hesitated as she spoke--"ought I
not to do my best to please them? Ought I not to give them as much of
myself as they want? Make a generous answer, and tell me that I am
right."

"You are always right--too right!" he said, half-impatiently. "If you
could be a little less generous----"

"What then?" said Elizabeth.

"Why, then, you would be--more human, perhaps, more like ourselves--but
less than what we have always taken you for," said Mr. Stretton,
smiling.

Elizabeth laughed. "You have spoilt the effect of your lecture," she
said, turning away.

"I beg your pardon. I ought not to have said what I did," said Brian,
sensitively alive to her slightest change of tone. "Miss Murray, tell me
at least that I have not offended you before you go."

"You have not offended me," she said. He could not see her face.

"You are quite sure?" he said, anxiously. "For, indeed, I had forgotten
that it was not my part to offer any opinion upon your conduct, and I am
afraid that I have given it with impertinent bluntness. You will forgive
me?"

She turned round and looked at him with a smile. There was a colour in
her cheek, a softness in her eye, that he did not often see. "Indeed,
Mr. Stretton," she said, gently, "I have nothing to forgive. I am very
much obliged to you."

He took a step towards her as if there was something else that he would
have gladly said; but at that moment the sound of the boys' voices
echoed through the hall.

"There is no time for more," said Brian, with some annoyance.

"No," she answered. "And yet I have something else to say to you. Will
you remember that some other day?"

"Indeed, I shall remember," he said, fervently. And then the boys burst
into the room, and in the hubbub of their arrival Elizabeth escaped.

Her violets had fallen out of her brooch. Brian found them upon the
floor when she had gone; henceforth he kept them amongst his treasures.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WISHING WELL.

Hugo's first call at Strathleckie was made on the day following Mr.
Stretton's arrival. Father Cristoforo's letter had been delivered by
that morning's post, and it was during a stroll, in which, to tell the
truth, Br