The distance was too great for her to leap; moreover, the bank was steep there, and to fall would end in a complete immersion, and, gathering her skirts above her little booted feet, she looked around her with a comical air of perplexity and dismay, which her companion of the rod was not slow to perceive, and again he instantly approached, but this time with an absolute smile rippling all over his face. 'You cannot leap this distance without risk, and so must permit me to assist you again,' said he, stepping at once into the water, which rose midway up his long fishing-boots. He put an arm round her--a strong arm she felt it to be--and at once lifted her to the bank. 'I have to thank you again, sir,' said Mary, blushing in earnest now. 'I am so glad that I was within sight--you were quite in a scrape, perched on that fragment of rock, with the dark water eddying round you,' said he, again lifting his hat; 'but perhaps you can repay me by indicating the nearest path to Craigmhor?' Mary did so, on which, still lingering near, he remarked, 'And so these are the Birks of Invermay, so famed in Scottish song, and story, too, I believe? It is indeed a lovely spot!' 'Lovely, indeed,' replied Mary, as the praise of her native glen went straight to her heart; 'even we, who live here all the year round, never tire of its beauty.' 'I am here for the first time; I came to this quarter only yesterday, and the alternately bold and sylvan nature of the scenery impressed me greatly. You must be fond of fishing,' he added, with a well-bred smile, 'and seem more expert with your rod than I.' 'But I only know the May,' replied Mary, taking her rod to pieces as a hint that she was about to withdraw, on which the stranger began to do the same. 'I have fished for trout in many places--even in the Lake of Geneva,' said he, 'and, curiously enough, the fish there are precisely the same as those in Lough Neagh in Ireland.' 'In weather so clear and light as this--even after flood--it is no easy task to lure them to destruction here,' replied Mary, 'and a light enough basket is often carried home, even from the best parts of the stream.' 'Such has been my fortune to-day,' said he, as he quietly proceeded by her side; but now Mary remembered that the path she had indicated to him as leading to Craigmhor was also the one she had to pursue to reach Birkwoodbrae. 'Our May trout are very beautiful, and are as good in quality as in appearance,' remarked Mary, scarcely knowing what to say. 'I hope you do not venture to such places as this in winter,' said he, pointing to some rocks that overhung the shaded stream. 'Why?' asked Mary, laughing. 'Because, when the water freezes--as I suppose it does--and these rocks are covered with snow, there must be danger.' 'I fear you look at them with a Londoner's eyes.' 'I am a Londoner--in one fashion--Captain Colville of the Guards.'