Well, it was a flattering proposal; and this calm, shrewd-headed man seemed to consider it easily practicable—and as the kind of thing that a young man in his country would naturally make for and achieve; while the young lady on the sofa had now thrown aside the pretence of knitting, and was regarding him with eloquent eyes, and talking as if it were all settled and attained, and Ronald already become an enterprising and prosperous manager, whom they should come to see when they visited Scotland, and who was certainly to be their guest when he crossed the Atlantic. No wonder his head was turned. Everything seemed so easy—why, both she and her father appeared to be surrounded, when at home, with men who had begun with nothing and made fortunes. And then he would not be torn away altogether from the hills. He might still have a glimpse of the dun deer from time to time; there would still be the dewy mornings by lake and strath and mountain-tarn, with the stumbling on a bit of white heather, and the picking it and wearing it for luck. And if he had to bid farewell to Clebrig and Ben Loyal and Ben Hope and Bonnie Strath-Naver—well, there were other districts far more beautiful than that, as well he knew, where he would still hear the curlew whistle, and the grouse-cock crow in the evening, and the great stags bellow their challenge through the mists of the dawn. And as for a visit to Chicago?—and a view of great cities, and harbours, and the wide activities of the world?—surely all that was a wonderful dream, if only it might come true! ’I’m sure I beg your pardon,’ said he, rising, ’for letting ye talk all this time about my small affairs. I think you’ll have a quieter day to-morrow; the wind has backed to the east; and that is a very good wind for this loch. And I’ve brought the minnows that I took to mend; the kelts are awful beasts for destroying the minnows.’ He put the metal box on the mantelpiece. They would have had him stay longer—and Miss Carry, indeed, called reproaches down on her head that she had not asked him to smoke nor offered him any kind of hospitality—but he begged to be excused. And so he went out and got home through the cold dark night—to his snug little room and the peat-fire, and his pipe and papers and meditations.