She was dressed in white, her hair hanging in two plaits down her back. "I am playing at being in Scotland," she said as we came up, "and I have gathered these Scotch wild flowers for Mr. Jack." She handed them up to me, and when my eyes met hers in thanks Aunt Lucretia saw the blush that flushed her face. She looked sharply at me a moment and then smiled. I walked to the barn gate, Elsie going with us, and telling me of the Scotch flowers and trees. "I would be quite happy here," she said, "if we only had the heather on these hills." Aunt Lucretia turned at the gate. "You must come up to the house some night this week, and we’ll have a Bobbie Burns evening," said she. "Oh, thank you," Elsie answered, smiling at me instead of at Aunt Lucretia. "Who was that you were talking to before we met you?" I asked. "The gentleman who rode off when he saw us coming?" "That was Captain Braxton. He has asked my hand in marriage, but I dinna think I shall," she added, with a little sigh. "I dinna like him as I should, but I dinna say yet, for I shall think it over. He’s noo like Mr. Jack." Her little Scotch words would slip in now and then. I flushed and looked at Aunt Lucretia, who sat biting her lips as if in anger. Elsie was all frankness. She put her hand in mine trustingly, and instantly I knew why she had told me. "No brother could love you more than I do," I said. "Tammas and Marget raised me, too, so I’m really your brother." I laughed to hide my anger at Braxton Bragg and the turn affairs had taken. She had lifted my hand with a loyal little gesture and pressed it to her cheek before I could withdraw it. "You’ll come to see me, often, won’t you, Mr. Jack? I need you to help me." "Jack," I said, smiling at her, "just Jack from now on." "Oh, but that’s not respectful, and I’d not be wanting in respect for you for the world." "I’ll not call you Elsie then, any more," I answered, "nor make the request of you I’m going to make." "Jack, then," she said. "And your request—it is already granted." "That you’ll not see Braxton Bragg alone until—well, until I have talked with you," I said earnestly. "O—h," and her eyes opened wide. "Jack, why, of course. If he writes to me again I’ll send the letter to you before I answer it." "Bring it," I said; "I want to see it right away." We rode back to the house. "Jack," said my aunt, "he is the most contemptible reversion to a scrub that ever came from a good pedigree! But if he tries that game on that child—he has played it recklessly since you left—I’ll kill him myself—damn him!" I soon forgot Elsie. I caught sight of Eloise entertaining Goff in our old bower, and I could see that as he sat there, smoking and watching her, he already thought she was the Countess of Carfax. *CHAPTER XI* *TWO WAYS OF LOVE*