Now, Jean's ear had been to the parlor keyhole for a time, but some message she had to take to Margaret, and what she risked saying was this: "It's Lord Rintoul and a party that has been catched in the rain, and he would be obliged to you if you could gie his bride shelter for the nicht." Thus the distracted servant thought to keep Margaret's mind at rest until Gavin came back. "Lord Rintoul!" exclaimed Margaret. "What a pity Gavin has missed him. Of course she can stay here. Did you say I had gone to bed? I should not know what to say to a lord. But ask her to come up to me after he has gone--and, Jean, is the parlor looking tidy?" Lord Rintoul having departed, Jean told Babbie how she had accounted to Margaret for his visit. "And she telled me to gie you dry claethes and her compliments, and would you gang up to the bedroom and see her?" Very slowly Babbie climbed the stairs. I suppose she is the only person who was ever afraid of Margaret. Her first knock on the bedroom door was so soft that Margaret, who was sitting up in bed, did not hear it. When Babbie entered the room, Margaret's first thought was that there could be no other so beautiful as this, and her second was that the stranger seemed even more timid than herself. After a few minutes' talk she laid aside her primness, a weapon she had drawn in self-defence lest this fine lady should not understand the grandeur of a manse, and at a "Call me Babbie, won't you?" she smiled. "That is what some other person calls you," said Margaret archly. "Do you know that he took twenty minutes to say good-night? My dear," she added hastily, misinterpreting Babbie's silence, "I should have been sorry had he taken one second less. Every tick of the clock was a gossip, telling me how he loves you." In the dim light a face that begged for pity was turned to Margaret. "He does love you, Babbie?" she asked, suddenly doubtful. Babbie turned away her face, then shook her head. "But you love him?" Again Babbie shook her head. "Oh, my dear," cried Margaret, in distress, "if this is so, are you not afraid to marry him?" She knew now that Babbie was crying, but she did not know why Babbie could not look her in the face. "There may be times," Babbie said, most woeful that she had not married Rintoul, "when it is best to marry a man though we do not love him." "You are wrong, Babbie," Margaret answered gravely; "if I know anything at all, it is that." "It may be best for others." "Do you mean for one other?" Margaret asked, and the girl bowed her head. "Ah, Babbie, you speak like a child." "You do not understand." "I do not need to be told the circumstances to know this--that if two people love each other, neither has any right to give the other up." Babbie turned impulsively to cast herself on the mercy of Gavin's mother, but no word could she say; a hot tear fell from her eyes upon the coverlet, and then she looked at the door, as if to run away.