‘I am so glad you have come, Miss Lindsay,’ she had said on the first occasion when they were left alone together. ‘May I call you “Margaret”? I think it is such a perfectly lovely name.’ ‘Of course you may,’ said the matter-of-fact Margaret. ‘And you will call me “Laura,” of course.’ But Margaret avoided making any reply to this, and practically declined to adopt the more familiar style of address; and Laura soon returned to the more formal ‘Miss Lindsay.’ Alec was, of course, more frequently at his uncle’s, now that his sister was staying there; but his visits did not afford him much satisfaction. With Semple he had little in common. There was a natural want of sympathy between the two; and besides, Semple looked down upon Alec as being ‘countrified,’ while Alec was disposed to hold his cousin in contempt for his ignorance of everything unconnected with the making and the sale of paraffin oil. As to Laura, he seldom had a chance of saying much to her; while his intercourse with his sister was more constrained than it had ever been before. Margaret saw quite plainly that as her brother was talking to her, his eyes and his heart were hankering after Laura Mowbray; and she felt mortified by his want of interest in what she said to him, though she was too proud to show her feeling, except by an additional coldness of manner. One evening Alec called at Glendhu, and, as usual, he found the younger portion of the family in the garden. Margaret was sitting by herself on a bench overlooking the sea, with some knitting in her hand, while the other two were sauntering along one of the paths at a little distance. Alec waited till they came up, and then he said: ‘I have borrowed Mr. Fraser’s light skiff; suppose we all go for a row? You can row one skiff and I the other,’ he added, turning to Semple. ‘Oh, delightful!’ cried Laura. ‘It is just the evening for a row. You will come, Miss Lindsay, won’t you?’ ‘I have no objections,’ said Margaret, quite indifferently. Laura turned and ran into the house for wraps, while a rather awkward silence fell upon the rest of the party. Semple moved away from Margaret almost at once, and hung about the French window, so as to be ready to intercept Laura as soon as she issued from the house. Alec felt in a manner bound to remain with his sister; and she would not see his evident desire to follow Semple to the house, and so have a chance of securing Laura for his companion. When at length the English girl appeared, with a dark-green plaid thrown over her shoulder, Semple sprang at once to her side; and, without paying the slightest attention to Alec or his sister, they hurried down to the water’s edge. In a few minutes more they had appropriated the best of the two boats (the one Alec had borrowed) and were floating far out on the loch. Alec could not help his disappointment appearing in his face; and his sister noticed and resented it.