“I should have thought you might have compassed both ends, by spending a day at the British Museum,” remarked Miss Ormson. “How sharp you have got, Bessie, my dear,” ventured Mrs. Black. “Is it anything in the air, I wonder?” “If it be, it is to be hoped you will take it,” observed her husband. At which speech Mr. Black laughed and Mrs. Ormson laughed, while Heather looked at her guests, blankly wondering how she was to preserve peace amongst them. “Gilbert will soon be down to keep Bessie in order,” remarked Mrs. Ormson. “I am glad to hear it—he is a very nice young fellow,” affirmed Mr. Black. “I have never seen him,” said Arthur Dudley. “Then you will be pleased when you do see him,” answered the oracle; “a very intelligent, modest, well-mannered, pushing young man as any I know.” “And handsome too,” added Mrs. Black, glad to find some smooth water where she could safely launch her little conversational boat again without fear of breakers. “And handsome too; and oh! so good to his mother and sisters.” “I liked him greatly,” said Heather, from her end of the table; and, as she spoke, almost involuntarily she glanced at Bessie, who, with her head turned aside, was looking out into the semidarkness of the summer’s night. Alick had his eyes fixed on Bessie also. Perhaps he was trying to reconcile the fact of Gilbert Harcourt with the existence of the stranger they had met in North Kemms church. Anyhow, he felt curious, and, though Heather knew nothing about the North Kemms stranger, she had grown curious also. In due time Mr. Harcourt arrived, as did also Miss Hope, and then, indeed, the house was full—so full that Bessie privately likened it to a Noah’s Ark, and wondered how the patriarch managed to keep his animals in order. “It is more than poor Heather can do,” sighed Alick. “What makes her have them?” asked Bessie. “Do you think Arthur would be satisfied if she had not?” inquired the lad. “It is just the same every year, only, unhappily, this year they have all elected to come together.” “I am one of the ‘all’ Alick, remember,” she said, laughing. There had been a time when Alick would indignantly have denied this assertion; but he remembered North Kemms church, and held his peace. “You are angry with me,” she went on, noticing his hesitation. “Perhaps, if you knew everything, you would be sorry.” And, with that, Bessie turned and walked into the house, leaving Alick, who certainly did not know everything, in a state of wonderment. Why should he be sorry for Bessie? For himself he might feel sorry that two men stood between him and the prize he had vaguely began to covet; but where was the need of pitying her? If she did not like Gilbert, why had she accepted him? If she did like him, why had she gone to North Kemms to meet another lover?