ood many words to be said
before she could be forced to go with Brownrig, even though he might, as
he had said, have "the law on his side."

She would wait patiently till Mr Hadden should answer the letter she
had sent him when she had first heard that her brother was set free, and
when she should hear that Willie was safe in America, then would be her
time to go away.

"I must wait patiently; I must not let myself fall into blackness and
darkness again. Whether I have done wrong, or whether I have done
right, there's no turning back now."

As far as Saunners was concerned it soon was seen that she had nothing
to fear. He had only kindly looks for her now, and though his words of
greeting were few, they were kindly also. The words of caution and
counsel which it was "his bounden duty" to let drop for the benefit of
all young and thoughtless persons when opportunity offered, had
reference chiefly to the right doing of daily duty, and the right using
of daily privileges and opportunities, as far as Allison was concerned.

And so the days passed till November was drawing near. Then something
happened. Auld Kirstin came home to the manse. "Home," it must be,
thought the neighbours, who saw the big "kist" and the little one lifted
from the carrier's cart. And Allison, to whom Mrs Hume had only spoken
in general terms as to the coming of their old servant, could not help
thinking the same, and with a little dismay. But her year's experience
had given her confidence in the kindness and consideration of her
mistress, and she could wait patiently for whatever might be the
decision with regard to her.

The minister's wife and the minister himself had had many thoughts about
the matter of Kirstin's coming home long before she came. For as the
summer days drew to a lingering end, Mrs Esselmont had fallen sick and
had appealed to them for help.

She was not very ill, but her illness was of a nature which made her
residence at Firhill during the winter not altogether impossible, but
undesirable and unwise, as she told them, since she had the power to go
elsewhere. She could spend the winter with her eldest daughter, she
said, but as her home lay in one of the cold, English counties, washed
by the same sea from which the bleak winds came moaning through the firs
on her own hill, she would hardly better herself by the change. What
she wished was to go further south to a place by the sea, where she had
already spent mo