just caught the boat
as she was leaving Stornoway harbor, the hurry he was in fortunately
saving him from the curiosity and inquiries of the people he knew on
the pier. As for the frank and good-natured captain, he did not show
that excessive interest in Mr. Mackenzie's affairs that Duncan had
feared; but when the steamer was well away from the coast and bearing
down on her route to Skye, he came and had a chat with the King of
Borva about the condition of affairs on the west of the island; and he
was good enough to ask, too, about the young lady that had married the
English gentleman. Mr. Mackenzie said briefly that she was very well,
and returned to the subject of the fishing.

It was on a wet and dreary morning that Mr. Mackenzie arrived in
London; and as he was slowly driven through the long and dismal
thoroughfares with their gray and melancholy houses, their passers-by
under umbrellas, and their smoke and drizzle and dirt, he could not
help saying to himself, "My poor Sheila!" It was not a pleasant place
surely to live in always, although it might be all very well for a
visit. Indeed, this cheerless day added to the gloomy fore-bodings
in his mind, and it needed all his resolve and his pride in his own
diplomacy to carry out his plan of approaching Sheila.

When he got down to Pembroke road he stopped the cab at the corner and
paid the man. Then he walked along the thoroughfare, having a look
at the houses. At length he came to the number mentioned in Sheila's
letter, and he found that there was a brass plate on the door bearing
an unfamiliar name. His suspicions were confirmed.

He went up the steps and knocked: a small girl answered the summons.
"Is Mrs. Lavender living here?" he said.

She looked for a moment with some surprise at the short, thick-set
man, with his sailor costume, his peaked cap, and his voluminous gray
beard and shaggy eyebrows; and then she said that she would ask, and
what was his name? But Mr. Mackenzie was too sharp not to know what
that meant.

"I am her father. It will do ferry well if you will show me the room."

And he stepped inside. The small girl obediently shut the door, and
then led the way up stairs. The next minute Mr. Mackenzie had entered
the room, and there before him was Sheila bending over Mairi and
teaching her how to do some fancy-work.

The girl looked up on hearing some one enter, and then, when she
suddenly saw her father there, she uttered a slight cry of alar