that a strange and inexplicable apprehension filled me; and, scarce thinking what I did, I went over to her and knelt down beside her, putting one arm around her shoulders.

Her expression, which had been smiling and vaguely audacious, changed subtly. She lay looking up at me very wistfully for a moment, then lifted her hands a little way. I laid them to my lips, looking over them down into her altered eyes.

“Always,” she said under her breath, “always you have been kind and true, Euan, even when I have used you with scant courtesy.”

“You have never used me ill.”

“No — only to plague you as a girl torments what she truly loves� . Lois and I have spoken much of you together —