"What is her petition?" said Mary, who had recovered from her momentary confusion, and was now prepared to be entirely bland and magnanimous—which, indeed, was her natural mood. "Well," said he, "Purdie—Mr. Purdie—has been threatening to have her shut up in some asylum for imbeciles—so they say—-and Anna is in a great state about the possibility of her being taken away from among the people she knows. I don’t think it is true, myself; indeed I doubt whether he could do anything of the kind, without the consent of her relatives, and she has got none now; but I am not quite sure what the law is; anyhow, what I imagine to be the case is simply that Mr. Purdie has been making use of these threats to spite the people with whom Anna Chlannach is a favourite. For she is a general favourite—there is no harm in the girl——" "Why, so Barbara said!" Mary exclaimed. "It is quite true that she is rather useless about the place," Donald Ross went on. "Sometimes they have tried her with a bit of herding; but then, if she saw a boat out at sea, she would imagine her mother was coming back, and she would go away down to the shore to meet her, and spend her time in gathering white shells, that she thinks is money, to give to her mother. Well, you see, that is awkward. You couldn’t leave sheep or cows under Anna’s care without asking somebody to keep an eye on Anna herself. The truth is, she is useless. But there’s no harm in the lass; and the people are fond of her; there’s always a bit of food, or a corner for her to sleep in; so that she’s not a cost to anyone except to those that are willing to pay it—a mere trifle—and in any case it does not come out of Mr. Purdie’s pocket——" "She shall not be shut up in any asylum, if I have any say in the matter!" Mary interposed, with a touch of indignation. "I asked her to stay and appeal to yourself," he continued. "But she was frightened of you——" "Yes," said Mary, "everyone is frightened of me—or set against me—in this place!" "There is another thing I should mention," he proceeded—ignoring this taunt, if it was meant as a taunt; "the young girls and lads about here are not very considerate if there’s any fun going on; and they’ve heard of this proposal of Purdie’s; and so they amuse themselves by telling Anna Chlannach that she is going to be taken away and shut up in an asylum, and the poor girl is dreadfully frightened. But if you can assure her that you will not allow Purdie to do any such thing——" "Well, of course I will, if you will only bring her to me!" said Mary, impetuously. "Why haven’t you brought her to me before?" He hesitated. Then he said— "I am very much obliged to you. I will tell Anna Chlannach the first time I see her. Good morning, Miss Stanley!" But Mary would not have that; she said boldly— "Are you not going down to the village?—won’t you walk with us?"