e may as well--"

"Minister! Is there a minister coming?" cried the lady.

"O thank God, whose servant he is! Thank God for sending me
deliverance, as He surely will by these means!" She had sunk on her
knees. Rollo patted her on the shoulder and said the folk were
certainly coming. What to make of Rollo she did not know. He treated
her as if she were a child. He used a coaxing way of talking, explained
to her the plainest things before her eyes, and patted her on the
shoulder. She drew away, looking very haughtily at him, but he only
nodded.

"Why was I not told before that the minister and his wife were coming?
Macdonald did not tell me. Your mother did not tell me."

"They do not know it yet. They seldom know things till I tell them; and
I did not want to be kept at home to build a house till I had got some
business of my own done."

He would not tell how he had obtained his information; but explained
that it was the custom for a minister to live for some time on each of
the outlying islands, where there were too few people to retain a
constant pastor. This island was too little inhabited to have had a
minister on its shores since the chapel had gone to ruin, a hundred
years before--but the time was at hand at last. There had been a
disappointment in some arrangements in the nearest neighbour islet; and
Mr Ruthven and his wife were appointed to reside here for a year or
more, as might appear desirable. Rollo considered this great news.
Children and betrothed persons would be brought hither to be baptised
and married--arriving perhaps more than once in the course of the year;
and it would be strange if the minister were not, in that time, to be
sent for in a boat to bury somebody. Or, perhaps, a funeral or two
might come to the old chapel. Some traffic there must be; and that
would make it a great year for Rollo. And, to begin with, there would
be the house to build; and he might be sent for materials. He should
like that, though he did not much fancy the trouble of the building.

After a moment's thought the lady asked him if he could not keep the
secret of the minister's coming till the last possible hour. She would
reward him well if he would get the house built as for her. Seeing how
precious was the opportunity, she gave Rollo her confidence, showed him
how it would tend to satisfy Macdonald if she appeared to be settling
herself quietly in the island; whereas, if he knew of the approach