’I am rather doubtful,’ he said, with an unusual air of indecision, ’doubtful of the propriety of my—ahem—taking Miss Graham upon this excursion alone.’ ’Doubtful of a fiddlestick, Archie,’ retorted his cousin with vivacity. ’La, cousin, who could the poor child go with if not with you? Ain’t you safe as a convent? and then with the two little fellows and all— You’re joking, surely? You’d never disappoint the girl of her jaunt for such a silly reason?’ Herries said no more, but he looked rather spitefully at his cousin. Perhaps he was not flattered at being told he was ’as safe as a convent.’ In the meantime, the coach was ready for its start. Herries had selected a fine roomy vehicle, with a glass front, and had ordered three horses. Danny was in a seventh heaven of delight, and so forgot the pain of parting. There was a cracking of whips, a tremendous clatter of hoofs on the cobbles, a cheer from the little crowd that had collected to see the start. Nancy, from the causeway, fluttered a dainty pocket-handkerchief, and Jean waved her work-worn hand. Hers were the only tears that watered this farewell; one or two fell on her coarse apron as she trudged home behind her mistress. ’Yon poor bairn will never come back,’ she said to herself, and drew the back of her hand across her eyes. The village of Prestonpans lies, as all men know, about ten miles east of Edinburgh, on the shores of the Firth of Forth, as it widens to the sea. It is a fine drive down there, by the Portobello and the Musselburgh roads, for you perceive that there widens out before you one of the great waterways of the world—the ocean-path to this cold northern country of our love. Perhaps only the trading vessels and the fishing boats go there now, but it was the galleons of old that cleaved that mighty swirl, half river and half sea, and the sailing ships that brought Queen Mary to her fateful kingdom, curtseyed to that tawny tide. The instructive Herries was not slow to point out these matters to his young companions. There was no cloud upon his august brow, and so Alison became very happy. They were busy with the little boys all the way down, curbing the frantic excitement of Willy, who had been promised an hour on the sands, and encouraging Danny, whose spirit flagged, and who asked plaintive and difficult questions about his mother’s absence. It was high noon when they rattled into Prestonpans, and Alison stepped out into the village street, where the queer, little, secretive-looking white houses shouldered each other on to the road, and the growl of the sea could be heard at their backs.