? You yoursel' are beyond the obligation."

"I ne'er had it, I may say, for my feyther was drowned ere I was born,
and my mither died ere I was five years old. It's different wi' you,
dearie."

"It is, but Christine kens all o' her duty, and it will be her
pleasure to fulfill it." And she clasped her mother's hands in hers,
and kissed her. And Margot's old pawky smile flitted o'er her face,
and she said, "We must ask the Domine anent this question"--then a
little sarcastically--"or Neil will gie us the Common Law o' Scotland
concerning it."

So the trouble ended with a smile and the shout of Jamie as he flung
open the house door, in a storm of hurry and pleasure. "Auntie!
Grandmither!" he cried. "We are going to have a tug-of-war between the
English and the Scotch, on the playground, at half-past twelve. I'm on
the Scotch side. Gie me my dinner, Auntie, and I'll be awa' to help
floor Geordie Kent, and the rest of his upsetting crowd. Geordie's
mither is English, and he's always boasting about the circumstance."

"Are you going to tak' the brag out o' him, Jamie?"

"I am going to help do so, with all my might, but there's some Border
lads among the English set, and they are a hefty lot, and hard to
beat."

"That's right, Jamie! Fife lads shout when the boat wins the harbor,
not till then. All the same, laddie, bring me word o' your victory."

When dinner was over Christine dressed herself for her visitor, and
the light of love and expectation gave to her face an unusual beauty.
She wore her fisher costume, for she thought Cluny would like it best,
but it was fresh and bright and quite coquettish, with its pretty
fluted cap, its gold earrings, its sky-blue bodice and skirt of blue
and yellow stripes, and the little kerchief of vivid scarlet round her
shoulders. Its final bit of vanity was a small white muslin apron,
with little pockets finished off with bows of scarlet ribbon. If she
had dressed herself for a fashionable masquerade ball she would have
been its most picturesque belle and beauty.

It was seven o'clock when Cluny arrived. Ruleson had gone to a meeting
of the School Trustees, a business, in his opinion, of the very
greatest importance; and Margot's womanly, motherly sense told her
that Cluny would rather have her absence than her company. So she had
pleaded weariness, and gone to her room soon after tea was over, and
Cluny had "the fair opportunity," he so often declared he never
obtained; for Margo