or in that case he had
not learned the full ignominy of her story.

"Can you not say so little as 'good luck' to us?" she asked in her
lightest manner.

"You--you are going with him, then?" said Gilian, and he delighted in
the sharp torture of the thorns that bled his hands.

"No," she answered, "it's worse than that, for I stay. You have not
heard? Then you are the only one in the parish, I am sure, so ignorant
of my poor business. They're--they're looking for a man for me. Is it
not a pretty thing, Gilian?" She laughed with a bitterness that shocked
him. "Is it not a pretty thing, Gilian?" she went on. "I'm wondering
they did not lead me on a halter round the country and take the best
offer at a fair I It was throwing away good chances to give me to the
first offerer, was it not, Gilian?"

"Who is it?" he asked, every nerve jarring at the story.

"Do you think I would ask?" she said sharply. "It does not matter who it
is; and it is the last thing I would like to know, for then I would know
who knew my price in the market."

"Your father would never do it!"

"My father would not do but what he thought he must. He is poor, though
I never thought him so poor as this; and I daresay he would like to see
me settled before he goes. It is the black settling when I'm cried in
the kirk before I'm courted."

"They can never marry you against your will," said Gilian in a dull,
lifeless way, as if he had no great belief in what he laid forth.

"And that would be true," she said, "if I had a friend in the whole
countryside. I have not one except----"

He flushed and waited, and so did she expectantly, thinking he
would make the fervent protest most lads would do under the same
circumstances. But in the moment's pause he could not find the words for
his profound feeling.

"Except old Elasaid, the nurse on the Kames moor," she continued.

"Oh, her!" said he lamely.

"There's no one else I could think of."

"Look at me," he cried; "look at me; am I not your true friend? I
will do anything in the world for you." But he still went on torturing
himself with his bramble branch, the most insensible of lovers.

She was annoyed at his want of the commonest courage or tact. "John
Hielan'man! John Hielan'-man!" she said inwardly, trying a little
coquetry of the downcast eyes to tempt him. For now she was desolate
that she almost loved this gawky youth throbbing in sympathy with her
tribulation.

"I believe you are my true