During the brief interlude Lou had stood regarding the man and girl uncomprehendingly. Now she piped up, "Smiles loves ye er heap, I reckon, doctor man, an' so does I. Ef she don't marry with ye, I'll do hit when I gits bigger." "My, but I'm a fortunate man to have _three_ fair ladies love me, and I won't forget your promise," Donald laughed merrily. "But my brother Juddy don't love ye none," said the child, innocently bringing a cloud over the friendly sunshine in her hearers' hearts. Donald looked at Rose uneasily as he answered. "Oh, I hope he will like me some day. We should be the best of friends, for we both care for the same two dear girls." "Where _is_ Juddy?" came Smiles' somewhat troubled query. "Oh, he air away ergin; up in ther mountain." The shadow deepened on Rose's face and Donald caught the sound of a distressed, "Oh." "What's the matter?" he asked without special thought. "It haint ... it isn't anything ... leastwise it isn't anything that I can tell you about, doctor Mac. I ... I just don't like for him to go up there." A feeling closely akin to jealousy stirred Donald's heart. Did that uncouth young mountaineer really mean something to her after all? CHAPTER XIII GATHERING CLOUDS Despite Smiles' ingenuous proffer of a sister's affection, Donald was troubled with an unreasonable dissatisfaction over the course which the events of the morning had taken, and he knew that it was unreasonable, which made it worse. Now he suddenly announced that he guessed he would not wait until the afternoon before going down to Fayville to get his small amount of baggage. The girl was troubled, also, without knowing just why, and she watched his departure with an unhappy feeling that somehow the changes which the year had made in both their lives had raised a misty barrier between them--intangible, but not easily to be swept away. Furthermore, young as she was, she intuitively sensed that hers was the necessity of reconstructing their friendship on a new foundation, because she was a woman. The man could not do it.