weaker. He could make her uncomfortable
enough; but as to his opinion of her, she had almost reached the point
of not caring a straw for that. And she had faith enough in Alec to
hope that he would defend her from whatever Bruce might have said
against her.

Whether Mary had been talking in the town, as is not improbable, about
little Annie Anderson's visit to her mistress, and so the story of the
hair came to be known, or not, I cannot tell; but it was a notable
coincidence that a few days after, Mrs Bruce came to the back-door,
with a great pair of shears in her hand, and calling Annie, said:

"Here, Annie! Yer hair's ower lang. I maun jist clip it. It's giein ye
sair een."

"There's naething the maitter wi' my een," said Annie gently.

"Dinna answer back. Sit doon," returned Mrs Bruce, leading her into the
kitchen.

Annie cared very little for her hair, and well enough remembered that
Mrs Forbes had said it made a fright of her; so it was with no great
reluctance that she submitted to the operation. Mrs Bruce chopped it
short off all round. As, however, this permitted what there was of it
to fall about her face, there being too little to confine in the usual
prison of the net, her appearance did not bear such marks of
deprivation, or, in other and Scotch words, "she didna luik sae
dockit," as might have been expected.

Her wavy locks of rich brown were borne that night, by the careful hand
of Mrs Bruce, to Rob Guddle, the barber. Nor was the hand less careful
that brought back their equivalent in money. With a smile to her
husband, half loving and half cunning, Mrs Bruce dropped the amount
into the till.

CHAPTER XV.

Although Alec Forbes was not a boy of quick receptivity as far as books
were concerned, and therefore was no favourite with Mr Malison, he was
not by any means a common or a stupid boy. His own eyes could teach him
more than books could, for he had a very quick observation of things
about him, both in what is commonly called nature and in humanity. He
knew all the birds, all their habits, and all their eggs. Not a boy in
Glamerton could find a nest quicker than he, or when found treated it
with such respect. For he never took young birds, and seldom more than
half of the eggs. Indeed he was rather an uncommon boy, having, along
with more than the usual amount of activity even for a boy, a
tenderness of heart altogether rare in boys. He was as familiar with
the domestic animals and