But no one received so great a share of Lilie's regard, or was so powerfully attracted towards her, as Anne Ross. There was a new pleasure now in the long walks, which had a half hour's playful intercourse with Lilie to make them cheerful; and Anne again and again repeated her inquiries concerning the stranger who had left the child with Mrs. Melder, without however eliciting anything new. "She wasna put on like a lady," repeated the miller's wife. "My ain muckle shawl, wi' the border, was worth twa o' the ain she had on, and naething but a printed goun. But I have seen folk in silks and satins, Miss Anne, that had a commoner look--no that she was bonnie--but you saw her yoursel." "Yes," said Anne; "she was a very remarkable looking person." "Na' but the eyes of her! They made me that I near sat down and fainted--they had sic a wistful, murning look in them. The bairn's are no unlike. Haud up your head, Lilie, my lamb--only it wad tak watching and sorrow, if I'm no far mistaken, to gie her yon look. Waes me, Miss Anne! it spoke o' a sair heart!" "But Lilie's are bright and happy," said Anne, drawing the child closer to her, and looking affectionately upon the little face, from which shone eyes deep enough in their liquid darkness to mirror forth great sorrows. "We must not let grief come near Lilie." "Lilie blythe--blythe?" said the child, clinging to her side. "Lilie no like happy. Blythe is bonnier! Lilie go the morn--up--up!" "To the hills, Lilie?" "Up--up!" said the child, imitating with feet and hands the motions of climbing. "Lilie look away far--at the water." "At the Oran, Lilie?" "Where he go to?" asked Lilie, pointing through the window to the brown, foaming water--"rinning fast? Where he go to?" "To the sea, Lilie," said Anne. "Yes--yes," said the child. "Lilie once sail upon the sea; row--row--in a big boat. Lilie likes to look at it." "Were you alone, Lilie?" said Anne. "Was no one with you?" The child did not understand. "A big boat--big--big--bigger than yon!" Lilie had seen Mrs. Catherine's little vessel on the Oran, and had been greatly interested in it. "Lilie ran about," and the child eked out her slender vocabulary with the universal language of signs, "and saw the sea; but the water did not come upon Lilie." "And was there no one to take care of Lilie?" said Anne.--"No one to put on her little frock, and to comb these pretty curls?" The child looked up thoughtfully for a moment, and then, hiding her face in Anne's lap, burst out into a passion of tears, moaning out in her own language a lamentation over her "good nurse, her Juana," with all the inconsolable vehemence of childhood.