"In the Shetland Islands. Whiles I fear they have been shut in there by early storms, or have gone out pleasuring in some cockle shell of a boat and got----" "No, no, Aunt. I had a letter from Perth. They were on the mainland the seventh of September." "Then they are all right. Some day soon they'll come traipsing in, wet and draggled, and tired and hungry." "They will not come here, will they?" "I hope not. It is little welcome I'll give them if they come after this house is in order. They would have to go to the kitchen itself." "You would never do that, Aunt?" "Would I not? If the occasion comes you will see." The occasion came that afternoon. Mrs. Caird was standing before a large chest of fine napery, counting napkins, when Donald threw open the door of the room and, before she could speak, threw his arms around her neck and kissed her, and kissed her over and over again. "You dear Auntie! You dear Mammy!" he shouted, and she, between laughing and crying, gasped out: "Be done, you ranting, raving laddie! See you have made me drop the finger cloths, and my count is lost; and I shall have to go over them again." "I'll count them for you, Mammy." "You!" she ejaculated with horror. "Your hands are not fit to touch them." "Oh yes, you are going to give me one when you give me my dinner." "I will not. The tale of them is correct and just from the laundry, and I shall not have one of them soiled for anybody." "Not even for Richard Cramer?" "Where is he?" "In the parlor with Marion." "_Humph!_" "And we are hungry, Auntie, and we are going to stay here to-night." "No. Your rooms are now in the cleaning, you had better go to the Hall." "Very well, we can do that." "No, you can't. I won't have it, and Lady Cramer is in London." "Jericho! What took her there? Richard will be astonished." "So you will have to stay here. It's notably inconvenient, but whenever do men consider the conveniences? I'll give the two of you the guest-room, and we will just have to stay here a day longer, and make it decent-like after you." "Auntie, we are hungry; nothing to eat since breakfast, and I am not in love. I can't live on kisses and sweet words like Richard." "Surely not. Come with me and I will give you pot luck until six o'clock, then you'll get your dinner, and not a minute sooner. I have three extra women hired by the day and I can't slack my care of them." "Come and see Richard. He wants to see you." "Not he! He would have come up with you if he had wanted bad enough." "He got stopped on the way. How could he pass Marion? She was watching for him." "Did she know you were coming?" "I think so--certainly, certainly she knew." "And the little minx so innocently asked me if I knew!"