She stood near him. He put his arm round her little waist, and would have drawn her down upon his knees, but she resisted. “I don’t see what difference that can make in you all at once, Isy! We’ve known each other so long that there can be no misunderstanding of any sort between us. You have always behaved like the good and modest girl you are; and I’m sure you have been most attentive to me all the time I have been in your aunt’s house.” He spoke in a tone of superior approval. “It was my bare duty, and ye hae aye been kinder to me than I could hae had ony richt to expec’. But it’s nearhan’ ower noo!” she concluded with a sigh that indicated approaching tears, as she yielded a little to the increased pressure of his arm. “What makes you say that?” he returned, giving her a warm kiss, plainly neither unwelcome nor the first. “Dinna ye think it would be better to drop that kin’ o’ thing the noo, sir?” she said, and would have stood erect, but he held her fast. “Why now, more than any time—I don’t know for how long? Where does a difference come in? What puts the notion in your pretty little head?” “It maun come some day, and the langer the harder it’ll be!” “But tell me what has set you thinking about it all at once?” She burst into tears. He tried to soothe and comfort her, but in struggling not to cry she only sobbed the worse. At last, however, she succeeded in faltering out an explanation. “Auntie’s been tellin me that I maun luik to my hert, so as no to tyne’t to ye a’thegither! But it’s awa a’ready,” she went on, with a fresh outburst, “and it’s no manner o’ use cryin til’t to come back to me. I micht as weel cry upo’ the win’ as it blaws by me! I canna understan’ ’t! I ken weel ye’ll soon be a great man, and a’ the toon crushin to hear ye; and I ken jist as weel that I’ll hae to sit still in my seat and luik up to ye whaur ye stan’, no daurin to say a word—no daurin even to think a thoucht lest somebody sittin aside me should hear’t ohn me spoken. For what would it be but clean impidence o’ me to think ’at there was a time when I was sittin whaur I’m sittin the noo—and thinkin ’t i’ the vera kirk! I would be nearhan’ deein for shame!” “Didn’t you ever think, Isy, that maybe I might marry you some day?” said James jokingly, confident in the gulf between them.