"Tell me about her.--everything you can or will. I must know how I stand, and where. It’s not for nothing that an old woman of seventy-four rises and runs at a young man’s bidding." Neil nodded comprehendingly, and in his quickest and most graphic way he put her in possession of the facts. "It’s an unco story," she said, folding her slender hands with an unusual grip on the ebony stick. "It’s not a story that Donald Mackinnon would have liked to bear in connexion with his one ewe lamb. I’m glad he’s in Balquhidder," she said brusquely. "But the spunk of the lassie! There’s grit there Neil Drummond! She’ll fight--ay, and starve, but nobody shall know of it. That’s the true spirit that has made Scotland great! It’s in the women yet, Neil, but it’s scarce, very scarce among the men." Neil had no time for platitudes. His head was a whirl of plans. "Does Isla know I’m coming?" asked the old lady then. "Yes. She expects you to-morrow." "Has she left herself in your hands, then, lad?" asked Lady Betty with a curious straight glance under which Neil reddened. "So far. She’s run down, body and spirit, Aunt Betty. I want you to realize that before you see her. She--she has lost grip. My God, to see Isla Mackinnon like that! It makes me itch to get with my two hands at Mackinnon’s throat!" "Leave him out of the count, Neil. His Maker will deal with him, I dinna doubt," said the old lady quietly. "Then, she’s to be turned over to me to do with what I think fit." "Yes, and what she will agree to." "But this is a big thing, Neil. Does it mean that one day she will come to Garrion?" "Please God, it does mean that. But only a brute would think of himself at such a time. She must first be made well in body and spirit, Auntie Betty. I’ll come in later." "But if she’s let you do all this she must like you, Neil. Isla Mackinnon is not the woman to take favours of this kind from frem folk." "Wait till you see her," he pleaded, and she said no more. She ate an astonishingly big dinner, insisting on going down to the restaurant, dressed in an elegant gown of rich black satin, with priceless lace on the bodice and a diamond star glistening among its filmy folds. Many looked in the direction of the handsome young man and the still handsomer old lady and wondered who they were. Aunt Betty slept like a tired child the whole night long and rose at eight o’clock when Lisbeth brought her morning tea, every faculty alert and braced for the day’s work. At half-past ten the brougham came again, and Neil drove with her to the end of the Edgeware Road, where he got down, saying that he would meet her at lunch at Brown’s, whither she was to bring Isla if she could persuade her to come. Agnes Fraser herself joyfully opened the door to Lady Betty Neil. She was graciously recognized, and her welfare was asked for before Isla’s name was even mentioned.