se.

"Oh! I see what you are thinking. But it is only that I had a letter
to-night. No, it brought no ill news. It is from--my Marjorie. I
don't know--I canna tell why it should--"

"Why it should have made the tears come, you would say. Well, never
mind. I am not going to ask. You are much better and stronger than you
were, I am glad to say."

"Yes, I am quite well and cheerful,--only--"

But a knock came to the door, and Allison rose to open it.

"It is Mr Rainy. He has come to speak about--business. But he will
not keep you long to-night."

Mr Rainy had never come much into contact with Allison Bain. She was
to him "just a woman, like the lave." He had no wife, and no near kin
among women, and it is possible that he knew less of the sex than he
thought he did. He did not pretend to know much about Allison, but he
knew that several people, whose sense and judgment he respected, thought
well of her. She was tall and strong, and had a face at which it was a
pleasure to look, and, judging from all that he had heard about her, she
might be freer than most, from the little vanities and weaknesses usual
to her kind. She was a reasonable woman, he had heard, and that he
should have anything to do to-night, except to explain how matters
stood, and to suggest the time and the manner of certain necessary
arrangements, he had not imagined.

He came prepared to be well received, and he did not for a moment doubt
that he should make good his claim to be heard and heeded in all that
concerned the affairs which Brownrig had left in his hands. So he
greeted Allison with gravity suited to the occasion, yet with a
cheerfulness which seemed to imply that he had pleasant news to tell.
Allison received him with a quietness which, he told himself, it cost
her something to maintain. But he thought none the less of her for
that.

"No woman could stand in _her_ shoes this night, and not be moved, and
that greatly. And not one in ten could keep a grip of herself as she is
doing--no, nor one in fifty," said he to himself. Aloud he said: "I
ought, perhaps, to have given you longer time to consider when you could
receive me. But the doctor informed me that you had been at the
infirmary to-day, and as he was at liberty he suggested that you would
doubtless be willing to see us to-night. There are certain matters that
must be attended to at once."

"For the present I come home early," said Allison. "The evening is t