"Did you ever hear anything like _yon_?" she said. "It was very ill-bred. You see Mrs. Stormont is a person of strong feelings. That is always the excuse Margaret makes for her. But you may disapprove of a thing, surely, and show it in a way becoming a gentlewoman, without going so far as that." "What is it," asked Lewis, always full of interest in his fellow-creatures, "which this lady does not approve?" "There are great allowances to be made for her," said Miss Jean. "You see Philip is her only son, and naturally, if he marries at all, she would like him to look higher. The Setons are very nice people. I would not have you think anything different; but it would not be wonderful that she should like him to look higher." "I see; then it is Mrs. Seton who has arranged to marry her daughter to----" "Oh, you must not take that into your head. Bless me! I would not say that: it may never come the length of marrying; it is just that Philip is always hanging about the manse. And Katie, she is very young, poor thing, and fond of her amusement--they may mean nothing, for anything I can tell; and that is Margaret's opinion," Miss Jean said, with trepidation. "Margaret has always said it was nothing but a little nonsense and flirtation between the young folk." "It is the fashion of England," said Lewis, "I suppose--but it is strange to me, too, as to Mrs. Stormont--that Miss Katie should manage her own concerns." "I know little about the fashions of England," said Miss Jean, slightly annoyed by this answer, "but in Scotland it is not our way to arrange these sort of things; when they come of themselves, we have just to put up with it, if we don't like it, or to be thankful, if we do. It is more natural than that French way of arranging--which comes to nothing but harm, as I have often heard." Lewis did not stand up in defence of the French way. He said, "Miss Katie is too young, she will think that is play; but when it is otherwise, when the lady is one who knows what is in the world, and what it is to choose, and understands what she would wish in the companion of her life----" Here Miss Jean began to shake her head, and laugh softly to herself. "Where will you find a young creature that will be so wise as that?" she said. "Perhaps I was not thinking of a young creature," said Lewis, piqued a little by her laugh. "Ah," said Miss Jean, "that is just another of your French ways. I have heard that in their very stories it will be an elder person, a widow perhaps, that will be the heroine. That's a thing which is very repulsive to the like of us in this country. You will perhaps think I am very romantic, but I like none of your unnatural stories. What I like is two young folk, not very wise perhaps, mistaken it may be, but with honest hearts towards one another, faithful and true; that is what I like to hear of--and no parents interfering, except just to guide a little, and help them on."