Mr Craigie looked at the clock and decided that he would get his stroll into the half-hour, so he took his stick and sauntered down the drive. On one side of this drive was a line of huddled wind-bent trees, and at the end was a gate opening on the highroad, with the sea close at hand. Just as he got to the gate a stranger appeared upon the road, walking very slowly, and up to that moment concealed by the trees. He was a clergyman, tall, clean-shaved, and with what the laird afterwards described as a "hawky kind of look." There was no haughtiness whatever about the laird of Breck. He accosted every one he met, and always in the friendliest way. "A fine day!" said he heartily. "Grand weather for the crops, if we could just get a wee bit more of rain soon." The clergyman stopped. "Yes, sir," said he, "it is fine weather." His manner was polite, but not very hearty, the laird thought. However, he was not easily damped, and proceeded to contribute several more observations, chiefly regarding the weather prospects, and tending to become rapidly humorous. And then he remembered his appointment in the smoking-room. "Well," said he, "good day to you! I must be moving, I'm afraid." "Good day," said the stranger courteously, and moved off promptly as he spoke. "I wonder who will that minister be?" said Mr Craigie to himself as he strolled back. "It's funny I never saw the man before. And I wonder, too, where he was going?" And then it occurred to him as an odd circumstance that the minister had started to go back again, not to continue as he had been walking. "That's a funny thing," he thought. He had hardly got back to his smoking-room when Miss Holland appeared, dressed to go out, in hat and tweed coat, and dragging, of all things, her brown suit-case. It seemed to be heavily laden. She smiled at him confidentially, as one fellow-conspirator at another. "Do you mind giving me a hand with this?" said she. "Hullo!" cried the laird. "What's this--an elopement? Can you not wait till I pack my things too? The minister's in no hurry. I've just been speaking to him." It struck him that Miss Holland took his jest rather seriously. "The minister?" said she in rather an odd voice. "You've spoken to him?" "He was only asking if I had got the licence," winked Mr Craigie. The curious look passed from her face, and she laughed as pleasantly as he could wish. "I'll take the bag myself," said the laird. "Oh, it's no weight for me. I used to be rather a dab at throwing the hammer in my day. But where am I to take it?" "I'll show you," said she. So out they set, Mr Craigie carrying the suit-case, and Miss Holland in the most delightful humour beside him. He felt he could have carried it for a very long way. She led him through the garden and out into a side lane between the wall and a hedge. "Just put it down here," she said. "And now I want you to come back for something else, if you don't mind."