her tears fell upon it.

"If my brother did not need me I would come with good will. But I must
go to him when he is ready for me."

"Will you come to me till he sends for you? If he were to marry he
would not need you. You would be happy with me, I am sure, my dear."

"That you should even wish me to come, makes me very glad, but I can say
nothing now."

"Well, think about it. We would suit one another, my dear. And we
might have our Marjorie with us now and then."

Mrs Esselmont went back to Firhill, and Allison went daily to the
infirmary again. She kept herself busy, as was best for her, and no one
came to trouble her any more with counsel or expostulation. She did her
work and thought her own thoughts in peace.

"I will wait patiently till this troublesome business is settled, and
then I will know what I may do. I am not losing my time and I can
wait."

Having quite made up her mind as to her duty with regard to "this
troublesome business," she put it out of her thoughts and grew cheerful
and content, and able to take the good of such solace or pleasure as
came in her way.

Robert Hume was a help to her at this time. He looked in upon her
often, and gave her such items of news as came to him from the manse or
from Nethermuir. He brought her books now and then, to improve her mind
and pass the time, he told her, and Allison began, to her own surprise,
to take pleasure in them, such as she had taken in books in the days of
her youth, before all things went wrong with them, and all the world was
changed.

A letter came from her brother at last. It was dated at a strange place
in the West, and it was not a cheerful letter.

"It is a long time since I wrote to you," he said. "I had no heart to
write. I was grieved and angry, and I would only have hurt you with my
words. But I have not made so much of my own life that I should venture
to find fault with what you are doing with yours. As to my plans that
you asked about, I have none now. I may wait a while before I think of
getting a home of my own, since I am not like to have any one to share
it with me. Oh! Allie, how is it that all our fine hopes and plans
have come to nothing? It was your duty, you thought, to take the step
you have taken. I cannot see it so. Having once gone to him, you can
never leave him till death comes to part you. You might as well have
gone at the first as at the last, and you would have saved yourself the
tro