"Well then," said Louis, withdrawing into his sulks, "she bade me tell you that the Prince is with her and will be glad to see you!" "Oh, he will, will he noo," quoth Miss Aline; "weel, there's a heap o' princes. I hae been meeting them rayther thick thae last twa-three months. And this yin can juist wait." "But, Miss Aline, I think--it will be better for you to go at once--I am not going back to--to be insulted and treated like a child. I want to go, Miss Aline." The old lady held up her hands from which the deep lace sleeves hung gracefully, while the half-mitts clung to the narrow wrists. "Hoots--hoots, laddie! What's a' this? Ye hae been quarrelling with Patsy. For shame, Louis--eh, what's that? My puir lad, dinna tak' things to heart. She's a guid lass--what should onybody ken aboot her that I do not ken? Laddie, stop greetin'--Patsy would be terrible angry if she kenned I telled ye--but she wants ye to be a strong man--'a leader and not a follower.' Says she, 'I shall never care for a man that I can maister.'" "Then she will never care for me," mourned poor Louis. "I can do things for her sake--I can do as she bids me, and I am always ready. But, Miss Aline, it does not seem to be the least good. That prince--" "Never ye mind aboot princes--they are kittle-cattle, and Patsy was juist letting you see that ye should carry a speerit in ye that no prince in ony land could daunt." "Oh, if it were only fighting," said Louis, "I should not be afraid. But as it is, I shall not set my foot here again till Patsy sends for me--" "Which she is like to do the morn's mornin', just to see if ye are still in the sulks! Laddie, can ye no see that it is just an amusement to her? She doesna mean to be cruel, but only wants ye to be a man amang men--and mair parteeclar amang weemen!" "Yes, I know," said Louis, disconsolately, "she does it for my good. She has explained that to me several times. But somehow it does not seem to help much!" "Louis Raincy," said the old lady, severe for the first time, "be a worthy son of your forbears. There are forty of them in the Raincy chapel up yonder in the wood. It wad be an awesome thing to be carried in among them and you not worthy. I am a woman--an auld maid if you like--but I am a Minto, and here I am braving the great ones of the earth to look after Patsy--me that would a thousand times raither be at Ladykirk with Eelen Young and that silly Babby Latheron, weighing out the sugar and spices for the late conserves--the bramble and the damsons and the elderberry wine."