"Be quiet, Geordie; ye'll dirty the lady's gloves." "No, no," said Anne, taking the small brown hand into her own. "I am very fond of children, and this is a fine, sturdy little fellow." "Ye'll be a stranger, I'm thinking?" said Mrs. Brock. "There's few folk in our parish that dinna ken Redheugh." "Yes," said Anne. "I am quite a stranger; what is the reason it lies so deserted and desolate?" "Ye'll be come to the sea-side?" pursued Mrs. Brock; "it's no often we have folk out frae Edinburgh sae early in the year. Is't no unco cauld for bathing?" "I should think it was," said Anne smiling, "but I have never, bathed yet." "It'll be just for the sea air?" continued Mrs. Brock. "Are ye bideing far frae here, Mem, if yin may ask?" "I am living a good way on the other side of Aberford," said Anne. "Oh, and ye have had a lang walk, and it's a warm day. Get out of the road, Geordie; will ye no come in and sit down? ye'll be the better for the rest?" Mrs. Brock, as we have before said, had an ambition to be genteel. Now Anne Ross with her very plain dress, and quite simple manners, was eminently ladylike, and might be a desirable acquaintance. Anne accepted the invitation, and setting the strong little urchin, whom his mother knocked about with so little delicacy, on his feet, she led him in with her. Mrs. Brock's parlor was a temple sacred to company, and holidays. Its burnished grate, and narrow mantlepiece, elaborately ornamented with foreign shells; brilliant peacock feathers waved gracefully over the gilded frame of the little square mirror; the carpet was resplendent in all the colors of the rainbow. There were sturdy mahogany chairs, and a capacious haircloth sofa--the two ends of a dining-table stood in the middle of the room, elaborated into the brightest polish--the center piece was placed against the wall, and decorated with a case of stuffed birds. Mrs. Brock paused at the door, and contemplated it all with infinite complacency. It was something to have so grand a place to exhibit to a stranger. "Take a seat on the sofa, Mem; ye'll be wearied wi' your lang walk. Geordie, ye little sinner, wad ye put your dirty shoon on the guid carpet? Get away wi' ye." Mrs. Brock bundled the little fellow unceremoniously out, and seated herself opposite her guest. "You have a fine view," said Anne. "Is't no beautiful? They tell me there's no a grander sight in the world than just the Firth and Fife. Yonder's the Lomonds, ye ken, and yon muckle hill, even over the water, that's Largo Law. My mother was a Fife woman--I have lived at Colinsbrugh mysel; and we can see baith Inchkeith and the May in a clear day, no to speak o' the Bass. We're uncommonly well situate here; it's a fine house altogether." "It seems so, indeed," said Anne. "Ye see the only ill thing about it is, that it's no our ain.--George was uncommon keen to have had the house the bairns were a' born in. He's an awfu' man for his bairns." "Very natural," said Anne.