when
you see me in the Highlands, you will find me a thorough
Highland-woman."

"You will never become a Highland-woman," he said, with a grave
kindness. "Is it needful? I would rather see you as you are than playing
a part."

Her eyes expressed some quick wonder, for he had almost quoted her
father's words to her.

"You would rather see me as I am?" she said, demurely. "But what am I? I
don't know myself."

"You are a beautiful and gentle-hearted Englishwoman," he said, with
honest admiration--"a daughter of the South. Why should you wish to be
anything else? When you come to us, I will show you a true
Highland-woman--that is, my cousin Janet."

"Now you have spoiled all my ambition," she said, somewhat petulantly.
"I had intended spending all the winter in training myself to forget the
habits and feelings of an actress, and I was going to educate myself for
another kind of life; and now I find that when I go to the Highlands you
will compare me with your cousin Janet!"

"That is impossible," said he, absently, for he was thinking of the time
when the summer seas would be blue again, and the winds soft, and the
sky clear; and then he saw the white boat of the _Umpire_ going merrily
out to the great steamer to bring the beautiful stranger from the South
to Castle Dare!

"Ah, well, I am not going to quarrel with you on this our last day
together," she said, and she gently placed her soft white hand on the
clinched fist that rested on the table. "I see you are in great
trouble--I wish I could lessen it. And yet how could I wish that you
could think of me less, even during the long winter evenings, when it
will be so much more lonely for you than for me? But you must leave me
my hobby all the same; and you must think of me always as preparing
myself and looking forward; for at least you know you will expect me to
be able to sing a Highland ballad to your friends."

"Yes, yes," he said, hastily, "if it is all true--if it is all
possible--what you speak of. Sometimes I think it is madness of me to
fling away my only chance; to have everything I care for in the world
near me, and to go away and perhaps never return. Sometimes I know in my
heart that I shall never see you again--never after this day."

"Ah, now," said she, brightly--for she feared this black demon getting
possession of him again--"I will kill that superstition right off. You
_shall_ see me after to-day; for as sure as my name is Gertrude White, I