iss a little
rain?--oh, nothing at all. You will see it will go away whenever the
wind goes round."

With that Mackenzie would again go out to the front of the house,
take a turn up and down the wet gravel, and pretend to be scanning the
horizon for signs of a change. Sheila, a good deal more honest, went
about her household duties, saying merely to Lavender, "I am very
sorry the weather has broken, but it may clear before you go away from
Borva."

"Before I go? Do you expect it to rain for a week?"

"Perhaps it will not, but it is looking very bad to-day," said Sheila.

"Well, I don't care," said the young man, "though it should rain the
skies down, if only you would keep in-doors, Sheila. But you do go
out in such a reckless fashion. You don't seem to reflect that it is
raining."

"I do not get wet," she said.

"Why, when you came up from the shore half an hour ago your hair was
as wet as possible, and your face all red and gleaming with the rain."

"But I am none the worse. And I am not wet now. It is impossible that
you will always keep in a room if you have things to do; and a little
rain does not hurt any one."

"It occurs to me, Sheila," he observed slowly, "that you are an
exceedingly obstinate and self-willed young person, and that no one
has ever exercised any proper control over you."

She looked up for a moment with a sudden glance of surprise and pain:
then she saw in his eyes that he meant nothing, and she went forward
to him, putting her hand in his hand, and saying with a smile, "I am
very willing to be controlled."

"Are you really?"

"Yes."

"Then hear my commands. You shall _not_ go out in time of rain without
putting something over your head or taking an umbrella. You shall
_not_ go out in the Maighdean-mhara without taking some one with you
besides Mairi. You shall never, if you are away from home, go within
fifty yards of the sea, so long as there is snow on the rocks."

"But that is so very many things already: is it not enough?" said
Sheila.

"You will faithfully remember and observe these rules?"

"I will."

"Then you are a more obedient girl than I imagined or expected; and
you may now, if you are good, have the satisfaction of offering me
a glass of sherry and a biscuit, for, rain or no rain, Lewis is a
dreadful place for making people hungry."

Mackenzie need not have been afraid. Strange as it may appear,
Lavender was well content with the wet weather. No depression o