few ardent speeches from him, a
vehement sort of love-making, which Kitty parried with a good deal of
laughing adroitness, some saucy speeches from her which all the world
might have heard, and then the cottage was reached.

"Let me go in with you," said Hugo.

"Certainly not. You would frighten the children."

"Am I so very terrible? Not to you; don't say that I frighten you."

"I should think not," said Kitty, with a little toss sideways of her
dainty head. "I am frightened of nothing."

"I should think not. I should think that you were the bravest of women,
as you are the most charming."

"Oh, please! I am not accustomed to these compliments. I must take my
cakes to the children. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," said Hugo, taking her hand, and keeping it in his own while
he spoke. "I may wait for you here and go back with you to Strathleckie,
may I not?"

"Oh, dear, no," said Kitty. "You'll catch cold."

Then she looked down at her imprisoned hand, and up into his face,
sweetly smiling all the time, and, if they had not been within sight of
the cottage windows, Hugo would have taken her in his arms and kissed
her there and then.

"I never catch cold. I shall walk about here till you come back. You
don't dislike my company, I hope?"

It was said vehemently, with a sudden kindling of his dark eyes.

"Oh, no," answered Kitty, feeling rather frightened, in spite of her
previous professions of courage, though she did not quite know why. "I
shall be very pleased. I must go now." And then she vanished hastily
into the cottage.

Hugo waited for some time, little guessing the fact that she was
protracting her visit as much as possible, and furtively peeping through
the blinds now and then in order to see if he were gone. Kitty had had
some experience of his present mood, and was not certain that she liked
it. But his patience was greater than hers. She was forced to come out
at last, and before she had gone two steps he was at her side.

"I thought you were never going to leave that wretched hole," he said.

"Don't call it a wretched hole. It is very clean and nice. I often think
that I should like to live in a cottage like that."

"With someone who loved you," said Hugo, coming nearer, and gazing into
her face.

Kitty made a little _moue_.

"The cottage would only hold one person comfortably," she said.

"Then you shall not live in a cottage. You shall live in a far
pleasanter place. What should you say to a