hands in my own. As she came
over the side her breath blew in my face, sweet and warm, and all that
vagueness and unrest seemed in a moment to have been shredded away from
my soul. I felt as if that instant had taken me out from myself, and
made me one of the race. It took but the time of the flicking of the
horse's tail, and yet something had happened, a barrier had gone down
somewhere, and I was leading a wider and a wiser life. I felt it all in
a flush, but shy and backward as I was, I could do nothing but flatten
out the sacking for her. Her eyes were after the coach which was
rattling away to Berwick, and suddenly she shook her handkerchief in the
air.

"He took off his hat," said she. "I think he must have been an officer.
He was very distinguished looking. Perhaps you noticed him--a gentleman
on the outside, very handsome, with a brown overcoat."

I shook my head, with all my flush of joy changed to foolish resentment.

"Ah! well, I shall never see him again. Here are all the green braes
and the brown winding road just the same as ever. And you, Jack, I
don't see any great change in you either. I hope your manners are
better than they used to be. You won't try to put any frogs down my
back, will you?"

I crept all over when I thought of such a thing.

"We'll do all we can to make you happy at West Inch," said I, playing
with the whip.

"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take a poor lonely girl in," said
she.

"It's very kind of you to come, Cousin Edie," I stammered. "You'll find
it very dull, I fear."

"I suppose it is a little quiet, Jack, eh? Not many men about, as I
remember it."

"There is Major Elliott, up at Corriemuir. He comes down of an evening,
a real brave old soldier who had a ball in his knee under Wellington."

"Ah, when I speak of men. Jack, I don't mean old folk with balls in
their knees. I meant people of our own age that we could make friends
of. By the way, that crabbed old doctor had a son, had he not?"

"Oh yes, that's Jim Horscroft, my best friend."

"Is he at home?"

"No. He'll be home soon. He's still at Edinburgh studying."

"Ah! then we'll keep each other company until he comes, Jack. And I'm
very tired and I wish I was at West Inch."

I made old Souter Johnnie cover the ground as he has never done before
or since, and in an hour she was seated at the supper table, where my
mother had laid out not only butter, but a glass dish of gooseberry jam,