'Really, you are vulgar, Mina,' said Clara a trifle coldly, and, bending over an open trunk, busied herself with some of the trifles in the tray. 'We are sure to forget a thousand things. Do you think everything is here which ought to go?' she said, deliberately changing the subject. 'Oh, I don't know. We shall be glad of any excuse to come up in a week. If it is fearfully slow I'm coming back to keep Leonard company. Well, I suppose we must make haste. The cabs will be here directly.' 'Not till after breakfast, surely. There is the gong. Are you ready?' 'Yes; just put in this stud for me, like a dear. How elegant you look, just as if you had stepped from a bandbox. How do you manage to be so tidy, and yet always so graceful? When I am tidy I am stiff as a poker.' Clara laughed, and, having fastened the refractory collar-button, bent her stately head, and gave her sister a kiss. 'Don't attempt to be too tidy, it will spoil your individuality.' '"They were two sisters of one race, She was the fairest in the face,"' sang Mina, as she bounded down-stairs--not disdaining, in spite of her eighteen years, to slide down the last few feet of the banisters; only she took care to see that nobody but Clara was in sight. It was a very happy breakfast-table, though Leonard, whose classes kept him in town, affected a melancholy mood. 'I have only one piece of advice to give you, Gladys, in addition to my parting blessing,' he said teasingly. 'How much will you give for it?' 'How much is it worth?' she flashed back in a moment, her eyes dancing with fun. 'Untold gold, as you will find if you take it.' 'I can't buy it at the price,' she answered demurely. 'Well, I'll give it for nothing, in gratitude for the peace I shall enjoy this evening. Mamma, mayn't I come down Wednesday nights as well as Fridays?' 'No, my dear, you mayn't,' replied Mrs. Fordyce, shaking her head. 'If you work hard all week, you will enjoy your Saturdays all the more.' 'All right. Papa and I will have high jinks; see if we don't,' said the lad, with a series of little nods towards the newspaper which hid his father's face. Mr. Fordyce did not hear this remark, though he looked up in mild surprise at the laughter it provoked. 'You seem very merry, Len, my boy. It is time you were off.' 'Yes, I know. That's the way a fellow's treated in this house--not allowed five minutes to eat a decent breakfast. Well, I'm off. Good-bye, all.' 'The advice, Leonard?' asked Gladys, when he came round to her chair. He bent down, whispered something in her ear, and ran off. 'What did he say, Gladys. Do tell us?' cried Mina, in curiosity. 'I must, because I don't understand it,' answered Gladys. 'He said, "_Don't_ let them take you for a walk on the Ballast Bank." What did he mean?' 'Oh, the Ballast Bank is the only promenade Troon can boast of, and Len has a rooted aversion to it,' replied Mina. 'He is a most absurd boy.'