"Where is Thora?" she asked, as she turned every way, apparently to look for Thora, but really to allow her admirers to convince themselves that her dress was trimmed as handsomely at the back as the front--that if the stomacher was perfect in front, the sash of green velvet at the back was quite as stylish and elaborate. "Where _is_ Thora?" she asked again. "In the drawing room thou wilt find Thora with Ian Macrae," said Rahal. "Go to them. They will be glad of thy company." "Doubtful is their gladness. Two are company, three are a crowd. Yet so it is! I must run into danger, like the rest of women." "Is that thy Easter gown, Sunna?" asked Mistress Brodie. "It is. Dost thou like it?" "Who would not like it? The rumour goes abroad that thy grandfather sent to Inverness for it. Others say it came to thee from Edinburgh." "Wrong are both stories. I am happy to say that Sunna Vedder gave herself a dress so pretty and so suitable." With these smiling words she left the room and the elder women shrugged their shoulders and looked expressively at each other. "What can a sensible man like Boris Ragnor see in such a harum-scarum girl!" was Rahal Ragnor's question, and Barbara Brodie thought it was all Adam Vedder's fault. "He ought to have married some sensible woman who would have brought up the girl as girls ought to be brought up," she answered; adding, "We may as well remember that the management of women, at any age, is a business clean beyond Adam Vedder's capabilities." "Adam is a clever man, Barbie." "Book clever! What is the use of book wisdom when you have a live girl, full of her own way, to deal with?" "Conall chose the husbands for his daughters. They were quite suitable to the girls and they have been very happy with them." "Thora will choose for herself." "Perhaps, that may be so. Thora has been spoiled. Her marriage need not yet be thought of. In two or three years, we will consider it. The little one has not yet any dreams of that kind." "Such dreams come in a moment--when you are not thinking of them." In fact, at that very moment Thora was learning the mystery of "falling in love"; and there is hardly a more vital thing in life than this act. For it is something taking place in the subconscious self; it is a revolution, and a growth. It happened that after dinner, Conall wished to hear Ian sing again that loveliest of all metrical Collects, "Lord of All Power and Might," and Thora went with Ian to do her part as accompanist on the piano. As they sang Conall appeared to fall asleep, and no more music was asked for.