"Would you? But I couldn't live away from the Highlands, I should die. The great Flora didn't go to school. She had governesses. I know all about her." "Oh, yes, she did go to school. I have a life of her here," said Rowena. "Then Angus told me wrong. Perhaps I will go to school then—only I must come back for all the holidays." Mysie sat and talked, then she had a romp with Shags, and departed about seven o'clock. "I have to be back by eight, Dad said so. He's a very particular man. Angus says it's because he's a soldier." Rowena lay thinking after Mysie had left her. The advent of the red Bible had not altogether pleased her. "I suppose, Shags, it means that I shall have to read it, but as to studying it, I shouldn't have the faintest notion how to set about it. I think I'll wait till I see the General again. He may be able to give me a tip about it. Is it a case of thought telepathy between father and child, I wonder?" CHAPTER V FRIENDLY TALKS "Faith alone is the master-key To the strait gate and narrow road, The others but skeleton pick-locks be, And you never shall pick the locks of God." Walter Smith. ROWENA did not see her friends for ten days, for a week of storm and rain set in, and she managed to catch a cold which settled on her chest, and forced her to remain indoors and be nursed by Granny. She was solaced by a budget of Indian letters, and she straightway replied to her brother: "DEAR OLD TED,—" "It was good to see your fist again. I am as hoarse as a raven, and Granny has got full possession of me. You know what a dragon she is. I suppose the knowledge of her superior power keeps her from feeling the pellets of abusive epithets with which I pelt her! Shags, my devoted one, lies at the bottom of my bed, ready for the least spark of fun that can be got out of his mistress. He and I, of course, hold long conversations together. I don't know which speaks most intelligently—his stumpy tail, his two wicked little ears, or his sparkling brown eyes. I sometimes wish humans had that eighth sense, a tail! It would give one away too much, I expect! I often wonder whether it is entirely under Shags' control or whether it gives an independent wag of its own on occasions. If so, it must be rather unpleasant to poor Shags."