"_Miss_ Douglas!" cried her mother. "Alice, did I not tell you that you were on no account to call her _Miss_. Remember always, Mrs. Catherine. And she knows very well that we are not able to keep a maid for you, and will understand that Bessie is for a companion on the way, and in some sense a protector. If you stay long, you can send her home." "And be alone in the strange place, mother," said Alice, the sunshine fading, for a moment, from her face. "How long will it be strange, Alice?" said her brother. "How many acquaintances will you make in a week?" The sunshine flushed back again. "And Mrs. Catherine--is she very eccentric, mother? I hope I shall like her." "I hope still more, Alice," said Mrs. Aytoun, smiling, "that she may like you. Mrs. Catherine has many friends who could serve James; and then, you know, she has no heir. So be as fascinating as possible." "Mother!" exclaimed James, "this worldly wisdom sounds strangely from your lips. We do not send Alice away to pay court to Mrs. Catherine Douglas for her estate's sake." "By no means," said Mrs. Aytoun. "I have heard Mrs. Catherine spoken of often as a most kind, loveable person, in her own peculiar way; and I accepted her invitation to Alice gladly, not because she has an estate unheired, but because--for various reasons, indeed--but the other, by the way. You are a landless laird yourself, James, and I am not quite so stoical as to despise a good inheritance." "Do you know any of Mrs. Catherine's neighbors, mother?" said Alice, whose attention, sadly distracted by anticipation, had altogether wandered during this discussion of motives. "The people I am likely to meet, do you know any of them?" "No," said Mrs. Aytoun, "I never was at the Tower; and my mother left the neighborhood young, and died so soon, too, that I have had very little connexion with her friends or native place. Indeed, it surprised me, that Mrs. Catherine should remember our relationship at all: but she is one of the most generous persons possible, I have heard often; and no doubt wishes to give you a glimpse, Alice, of the world you should enter on now." And Mrs. Aytoun gave a very quiet sigh. "Nonsense, mother!" said her son, energetically. "Alice stands in no need of generosity: and I should fancy a set of North Country lairds could be very little superior to the society we have here, landless though we be." "There are most gentlemanly and intellectual men in the North Country, James," said Mrs. Aytoun, quietly shifting her premises. "No doubt of it, mother; but not better than we have in Edinburgh." Mrs. Aytoun drew her hand over her daughter's fair curls, and made no answer; confessing to herself, that a North Country laird would be, in her eyes, a more suitable partner for her Alice, than any rising W.S., or poor advocate of all James Aytoun's friends.