are, an' veep--as ye say--a wee while
langer. I'll gang up to see them."

A minute more and David, tapping at the garret door, was bidden to enter
by a sweet voice which caused the slightest imaginable sensation in his
heart! Susan was there alone--not 'owling, as Tommy had expressed it,
but with the traces of tears obviously about her eyes. She blushed
deeply and looked a little confused as David entered, probably because
of being caught with the signs aforesaid on her cheeks.

"Guid-mornin', Miss Blake," said David earnestly, giving the girl a warm
shake of the hand. "O lassie, but I am sorry to hear that ye're in
trouble! I do assure ye that if a pund or twa would help yer granny--"

"'Sh, Mr Laidlaw!" said Susan, looking furtively round and speaking
low. "Granny will hear! You must not offer her money. From father,
indeed, if he were here, she would accept it, but not from a--a
stranger."

"Am I, then, such a stranger?" asked David in a peculiar tone, for the
word sounded cold and disagreeable.

Again Susan blushed, yet felt a tendency to laugh, as she replied,
"Well, you know, although you _have_ helped me in trouble, it is not
_very_ long since we met. But come and see granny; she's in the
garden--and, please, don't speak of our troubles."

"Weel, weel, please yersel', lassie," returned the Scot, almost sternly,
as he followed Susan into the garden on the roof, where old Liz sat in
her rustic chair resting her head on her hand, and looking sadly at the
sunlight, which flickered through the foliage on to the zinc floor.
Despite Susan's caution Laidlaw sat down beside the old woman and took
her hand.

"Noo, Mrs Morley," he said, "it's o' no use me tryin' to haud my tongue
whan I want to speak. I'm a plain north-country man, an' I canna thole
to see a puir auld body in trouble withoot offerin' t' help her. I've
been telt o' Susy's misfortin' an' aboot the rent, and if ye'll
accep'--"

"No, sir, no," said old Liz firmly, but without any look of that pride
with which she had been credited. "I will not accept money from--"

"But I'm no' askin' ye," interrupted David, "to accep' money as a
_gift_--only as a loan, ye ken, withoot interest of course."

"Not even as a loan," said the old woman. "Besides, young man, you must
not fancy that I am altogether penniless. I 'appen to 'ave shares in an
American Railway, which my landlord advised me to buy with my small
savings. No doubt, just at present