’I want to make a clean break off from the kind of life I have been leading,’ said he, ’and I know the surest way. I mean to enlist into one of the Highland regiments that’s most likely to be ordered off on foreign service.’ ’Ronald!’ She seized his hand and held it. ’Ronald, you will not do that!’ Well, he was startled by the sudden pallor of her face; and bewildered by the entreaty so plainly visible in the beautiful eyes; and perhaps he did not quite know how he answered. But he spoke quickly. ’Oh, of course I will not do that,’ he said, ’of course I will not do that, Miss Douglas, so long as you are in Glasgow. How could I? Why, the chance of seeing you, even at a distance—for a moment even—I would wait days for that. When I made up my mind to enlist, I had no thought that I might ever have the chance of seeing you. Oh no; I will wait until you have gone back to the Highlands—how could I go away from Glasgow and miss any single chance of seeing you, if only for a moment?’ ’Yes, yes,’ she said eagerly, ’you will do nothing until then, anyway; and in the meantime I shall see you often——’ His face lighted up with surprise. ’Will you be so kind as that?’ he said quickly. And then he dropped her hand. ’No, no. I am so bewildered by the gladness of seeing you that—that I forgot. Let me go my own way. You were always so generous in your good nature that you spoiled us all at Inver-Mudal; here—here it is different. You are living with your sister, I suppose? and of course you have many friends, and many things to do and places to visit. You must not trouble about me; but as long as you are in Glasgow—well, there will always be the chance of my catching a glimpse of you—and if you knew what it was—to me——’ But here he paused abruptly, fearful of offending by confessing too much; and now they had resumed their leisurely walking along the half-dried pavements; and Meenie was revolving certain little schemes and artifices in her brain—with a view to their future meeting. And the morning had grown so much brighter; and there was a pleasant warmth of sunlight in the air; and she was glad to know that at least for a time Ronald would not be leaving the country. She turned to him with a smile. ’I shall have to be going back home now,’ she said, ’but you will not forget, Ronald, that you have made me two promises this morning.’ ’It’s little you know, Miss Douglas,’ said he, ’what I would do for you, if I but knew what ye wished. I mean for you yourself. For my own self, I care but little what happens to me. I have made a mistake in my life somehow. I——’ ’Then will you promise me more, Ronald?’ said she quickly; for she would not have him talk in that strain. ’What?’ ’Will you make me a promise that you will not enlist at all?’ ’I will, if it is worth heeding one way or the other.’ ’But make me the promise,’ said she, and she regarded him with no unfriendly eyes. ’There’s my hand on’t.’