‘If I had known you a little longer,’ began Laura, with some hesitation, ‘I think I would have ventured to give you a little bit of my mind.’ ‘About what?’ asked Alec with sudden eagerness. Laura shook her head gravely. ‘I fear you would be offended if I were to speak of it,’ she said. ‘Indeed I would not. Nothing you could say could offend me.’ ‘Well, if you will promise to forgive me if I _should_ offend you----’ ‘You couldn’t offend me if you tried,’ said Alec warmly. ‘Then I will tell you what I was thinking of. I don’t think you should neglect your grand-uncle as you do.’ ‘Neglect!’ ‘Yes. It is not kind or dutiful.’ ‘Neglect! My dear Miss Mowbray, you are altogether mistaken. We can’t neglect those who don’t want us. He hasn’t the slightest wish, I assure you, to see me dangling about him.’ ‘There! You promised not to be offended; and you are!’ ‘Indeed I am not.’ ‘Yes, you are. I won’t say another word.’ ‘Oh, Miss Mowbray! How can you think I am offended? What have I said to make you fancy such a thing? On the contrary, I think it so very, very good of you to take so much interest----’ Here Alec stopped, for he saw that his companion was blushing, and that somehow he had made a mess of things. He had not yet learned that some species of gratitude cannot find fitting expression in words. ‘I think it is my turn to say that I have offended you,’ he said after a pause. Laura laughed--such a pleasant, rippling laugh! ‘It is getting quite too involved. Let us pass an Act of Oblivion, and forget all about it.’ ‘But if you think I ought to call on my uncle,’ began Alec--‘no; don’t shake your head. Tell me what you really think I ought to do.’ ‘Do you like Miss Lindsay?’ asked Laura, without replying to the question. ‘Aunt Jean? Yes; much better than I like Uncle James.’ ‘Then you can go to see _her_ now and then; and when you are in the house go into your uncle’s room and ask how he is, if he is at home. We ought not only to visit people for our own pleasure, but sometimes because it is our duty to do so.’ ‘Yes, you are quite right; and I will do what you say. But here we are at the top of the hill. What a delightful breeze, isn’t it? Do you see that blue cloud in the distance, just a little deeper in tint than those about it?’ ‘Yes; I see it.’ ‘That is Ben Lomond, nearly four thousand feet high.’ ‘Really?’ said Miss Mowbray; but there was not much enthusiasm in her voice. Alec, on the contrary, stood, in a kind of rapture which made him forget for the moment even the girl at his side. The sight of distant mountains always affected him with a kind of strange, delicious melancholy--unrest mingling with satisfaction, such as that which filled the heart of Christian when from afar he caught a glimpse of the shining towers of the celestial city.