Had there been--well, she had almost ceased to care about anything, and her own life was so little to her now, that she had become less able to value that of other people. To this had the _ignis fatuus_ of a false love brought her! She had dreamed heedlessly, to awake sorrowfully. But not until she heard he was going to be married, had she come right awake, and now she could dream no more. Alas! alas! what claim had she upon him? How could she tell, since such he was, what poor girl like herself she might not have robbed of her part in him? Yet even in the midst of her misery and despair, it was some consolation to think that Malcolm was her friend. Not knowing that he had already suffered from the blame of her fault, or the risk at which he met her, she would have gone towards the house to meet him the sooner, had not this been a part of the grounds where she knew Mr Crathie tolerated no one without express leave given. The fisher-folk in particular must keep to the road by the other side of the burn, to which the sea-gate admitted them. Lizzy therefore lingered near the tunnel, afraid of being seen. Mr Crathie was a man who did well under authority, but upon the top of it was consequential, overbearing, and far more exacting than the marquis. Full of his employer’s importance when he was present, and of his own when he was absent, he was yet in the latter circumstances so doubtful of its adequate recognition by those under him, that he had grown very imperious, and resented with indignation the slightest breach of his orders. Hence he was in no great favour with the fishers. Now all the day he had been fuming over Malcolm’s behaviour to him in the morning, and when he went home and learned that his wife had seen him upon Kelpie, as if nothing had happened, he became furious, and, in this possession of the devil, was at the present moment wandering about the grounds, brooding on the words Malcolm had spoken. He could not get rid of them. They caused an acrid burning in his bosom, for they had in them truth, like which no poison stings. Malcolm, having crossed by the great bridge at the house, hurried down the western side of the burn to find Lizzy, and soon came upon her, walking up and down. “Eh, lassie, ye maun be cauld!” he said. “No that cauld,” she answered, and with the words burst into tears: “But naebody says a kin’ word to me noo,” she said in excuse, “an’ I canna weel bide the soun’ o’ ane when it comes; I’m no used till ’t.” “Naebody?” exclaimed Malcolm. “Na, naebody,” she answered. “My mither winna, my father daurna, an’ the bairnie canna, an I gang near naebody forbye.” “Weel, we maunna stan’ oot here i’ the cauld: come this gait,” said Malcolm. “The bairnie’ll get its deid.” “There wadna be mony to greit at that,” returned Lizzy, and pressed the child closer to her bosom.