d 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."

"Mind?" said the laird gallantly. "Not me! But I'm wondering what you
are driving at."

She only smiled, but from her merry eye he felt sure that some very
brilliant jest was afoot, and he joked away pleasantly as they returned
to the house.

"Now," she said, "do you mind waiting in the smoking-room for ten
minutes or so?"

She went out, and Mr Craigie waited, mystified but happy. He waited
for ten minutes; he waited for twenty, he waited for half an hour, and
still there was no sign of the fascinating Miss Holland. And then he
sent a servant to look for her. Her report gave Mr Craigie the
strongest sens