’’Tis a fine clear evening to take the air,’ said Herries, ’and if Miss Graham walks, may I have the honour to escort her to the Potterrow?’ His glance was searching hers. His escort ... through the grim streets, under these rosy skies of the winter twilight? Her eyes shone acquiescence. And then—and then she remembered Nancy’s letter, and the willing answer died on her lips. *CHAPTER XXIII.* Herries was waiting for her to speak; his quick eye caught, first, the eager, answering look, then the cloud, the hesitation, the confusion. ’I could not trouble you to come with me, sir,’ said Alison, in a low voice, her eyes on the ground. ’Willy and I know the way well.’ There was the unmistakable note of refusal in her speech. Herries raised his eyebrows; his irritable pride was at once in arms. ’Very well,’ he said coldly; ’then I will have a coach called. At this New Year season you cannot be permitted to walk in the streets at this hour, with no protection but Willy.’ ’I wish to walk, sir,’ said Alison, miserably. She was, indeed, a poor actress; inventions and excuses came never a one to her aid. Mr. Creighton advanced unexpectedly to her rescue. ’These coaches,’ he said, ’are a terrible expense, the drivers extortionate, indeed, especially going up the town. There is the lass, Mysie, sir,’—to Herries,—’could she not be spared to accompany Miss Graham?’ ’She is big enough to do the dragon, certainly,’ said Herries, with a short laugh. ’Mysie be it, then; I’ll have her told.’ He left the room, with an air of offence, to give the order. ’’Tis a pity you could not let Mr. Herries go with you,’ Mr. Creighton said softly to Alison. ’The walk would have done him good; he sits too confined to his work.’ Alison raised her grey eyes to the old man’s face; they were dimmed with her vexation, her shame. But she had no time to speak, for Herries returned to say, curtly, that Mysie waited below for her charges, and presently both gentlemen saw their guests to the door. When Herries returned to his room, followed by his partner, he kicked at the fine fire in his grate, a way he had when annoyed. ’Madam was up to some little trick, there,’ he said sharply. ’Tut! tut!’ said Creighton. ’Why jump to ill conclusions, sir? We men of the law are too apt to be suspicious. It does not do with women; they have ways with them that seem little and secret to us, but are quite innocent.’ ’I like no such ways,’ said Herries, dourly. ’What has she to hide? Why could she not let me go with her?’ ’For the very reason, lad,’ cried his partner, in desperation, ’that there comes a time when a lass will not do, for proper pride, the very thing that her heart longs for most. ’Tis near on thirty years since I had to do with a woman in kindness, but I remember that. Man, did you not see the colour on her cheek and the glint in her eye, when you first spoke?’