‘Don’t row at such a furious rate; you’ll snap the oars,’ she said tranquilly, as her brother sent the boat careering over the waves. He stopped, and tried to look pleasant, but he could not shut his ears to the gay laughter that came to him across the water from the other boat. ‘They seem merry enough,’ said Alec. ‘Yes,’ said Margaret spitefully. ‘Miss Mowbray seems in very good spirits, considering that her uncle has not been dead much more than a month.’ ‘How unjust you are!’ cried Alec hotly. ‘As if she ought to shut herself up, and never laugh, because her uncle died! It would be hypocrisy if she did.’ ‘There I quite agree with you,’ said Margaret, with an ill-natured smile. ‘You mean that Laura could not be sincerely sorry?’ ‘I think she is very shallow and heartless,’ said Margaret, sweetly tranquil as ever. Alec was furious. ‘You girls are all alike,’ he said with suppressed passion. ‘Either you are always kissing and praising one another, or running each other down. And the more refinement, and delicacy, and beauty another girl has, the more you depreciate her.’ Margaret merely curled her lip contemptuously, and sat trailing her hand through the water, without making any reply. Nothing more was said till Alec was helping his sister out of the boat on their returning to land. ‘Don’t let us quarrel. I am sorry if I have vexed you, Maggie,’ he said. ‘I’m not vexed,’ she answered, in a not very reassuring tone, keeping her eyes upon the rocks at her feet. Her brother’s real offence was that he had fallen in love with Laura, and that she now occupied a very secondary place in his heart. And that she could not forgive. ‘Won’t you come up to the house?’ she asked. ‘No; and you can tell that cad that the next time he wants Mr. Fraser’s boat he had better borrow it himself.’ So saying, Alec shouldered the oars and strode away. Though he had defended Laura passionately when his sister spoke her mind about that young lady, Alec felt that he had been badly used. He had certainly made the proposal to the whole party, but he had pointedly looked at Laura and spoken to her; and she had replied in the same way. There was, indeed, a tacit understanding between them at the moment, that she would be his partner for the evening; and it was chiefly from a spirit of coquetry that she had chosen to ignore it afterwards. But Laura showed no trace of embarrassment when she met Alec in the village next day. ‘Why didn’t you come into the house last night?’ she said with a smile. ‘I didn’t think it mattered.’ ‘Why are you so cross? I suppose I have managed to offend you again. I never saw anyone so touchy and unreasonable!’ ‘It doesn’t very much matter--does it?’ ‘Why?’ ‘I mean, you don’t really care whether--oh!--never mind.’ ‘Now, I really believe you are annoyed because I went in your cousin’s boat last night, instead of yours. But what could I do? I couldn’t say, “I prefer to go with Mr. Lindsay”--could I?’