’Ah, because you think you will be allowed to write to him; and that all the fine courting will go on that way; and I’ve no doubt you’re thinking he’s going to make money in Glasgow—for a girl as mad as you seem to be will believe anything. Well, don’t believe _that_. Don’t believe you will have any fine love-making in absence, and all that kind of stuff. Mother will take good care. I should not wonder if she sent you to a school in Germany, if the expense were not too great—how would you like that?’ ’But she will not.’ ’Why, then?’ ’Because I will not go.’ ’Here’s bravery! I suppose you want something more heroic—drowning yourself because of your lost love—or locking yourself up in a convent to escape from your cruel parents—something that will make the papers write things about you? But I think you will find a difference after you have been two or three months at Inver-Mudal. Perhaps you will have come to your senses then. Perhaps you will have learnt what it was to have had a good prospect of settling yourself in life—with a respectable well-conducted young man—of good family—the Lauders of Craig themselves are not in the least ashamed that some of the family have been in business—yes, you will think of that, and that you threw the chance away because of an infatuation about a drunken ne’er-do-weel——’ ’He is not—he is not!’ she said passionately; and her cheeks were white; but there was something grasping her heart, and like to suffocate her, so that she could not protest more. ’Anyway, I will take care that I shall have nothing to do with it,’ the elder sister continued; ’and if you should see him again before you go, I would advise you to bid him good-bye, for it will be the last time. Mother will take care of that, or I am mistaken.’