hen Francesca had gone into the hall
to try long drives. (There is a good deal of excitement in this, as
Miss Grieve has to cross the passage on her way from the kitchen to
the china-closet, and thus often serves as a reluctant 'hazard' or
'bunker.')

"Do you mean what should we have done?" I queried.

"Nonsense, don't be captious! It can't be too late yet. They have known
each other only a little over two months; when would you have had me
interfere, pray?"

"It depends upon what you expect to accomplish. If you wish to stop
the marriage, interfere in a fortnight or so; if you wish to prevent
an engagement, speak--well, say to-morrow; if, however, you didn't wish
them to fall in love with each other, you should have kept one of them
away from Lady Baird's dinner."

"I could have waited a trifle longer than that," argued Salemina, "for
you remember how badly they got on at first."

"I remember you thought so," I responded dryly; "but I believe Mr.
Macdonald has been interested in Francesca from the outset, partly
because her beauty and vivacity attracted him, partly because he could
keep her in order only by putting his whole mind upon her. On his side,
he has succeeded in piquing her into thinking of him continually, though
solely, as she fancies, for the purpose of crossing swords with him.
If they ever drop their weapons for an instant, and allow the din of
warfare to subside so that they can listen to their own heart-beats,
they will discover that they love each other to distraction."

"Ye ken mair than's in the catecheesm," remarked Salemina, yawning a
little as she put away her darning-ball. "It is pathetic to see you
waste your time painting mediocre pictures, when as a lecturer upon love
you could instruct your thousands."

"The thousands would never satisfy me," I retorted, "so long as you
remained uninstructed, for in your single person you would so swell the
sum of human ignorance on that subject that my teaching would be for
ever in vain."

"Very clever indeed! Well, what will Mr. Monroe say to me when I return
to New York without his daughter, or with his son-in-law?"

"He has never denied Francesca anything in her life; why should he draw
the line at a Scotsman? I am much more concerned about Mr. Macdonald's
congregation."

"I am not anxious about that," said Salemina loyally. "Francesca would
be the life of an Inchcaldy parish."

"I dare say," I observed, "but she might be the death of the p