though
pretended to be buried, but stolen away from Edinburgh, and now confined
to the after-mentioned island of the Hebrides. Then followed Lady
Carse's signature and that of the minister, with the date.

"It will do! It will do!" exclaimed Mrs Ruthven. "My dear, dear Lady
Carse--"

But Lady Carse turned away, and paced the room, "I don't wonder, I am
sure," declared Mrs Ruthven, "I don't wonder that you walk up and down.
To think what may hang on this night--Now, take my arm,--let me support
you."

And she put her arm around the waist of her dear friend. But Lady Carse
shook her off, turned weeping to Annie, and sobbed out, "If you save
me--If this is all sincere in you, and--"

"Sincere!" exclaimed Annie, in such surprise that she almost dropped the
ball.

"O yes, yes; it is all right, and you are an angel to me. I--"

"What an amiable creature she is!" said Mrs Ruthven to her husband,
gazing on Lady Carse. "What noble impulses she has!"

"Very fine impulses," declared the minister. "It is very affecting. I
find myself much moved." And he began pacing up and down.

"Sincere!" Annie repeated to herself in the same surprise.

"Oh, dear!" observed Mrs Ruthven, in a whisper, which, however, the
widow heard: "how long it takes for some people to know some other
people. There is Mrs Fleming, now, all perplexed about the dear
creature. Why, she knew her; I mean, she had her with her before we
ever saw her, and now we know her--Oh! how well, how thoroughly we know
her--we know her to the bottom of her heart."

"A most transparent being, indeed!" declared Mr Ruthven. "As guileless
as a child."

"Call me a child; you may," sobbed Lady Carse. "None but children and
such as I quarrel with their best friends. She has been to me--"

"You reproach yourself too severely, my dear lady," declared the
minister. "There are seasons of inequality in us all; not that I intend
to justify--"

His wife did not wait for the end, but said, "Quarrel, my dear soul?
Quarrel with your best friends? You do such a thing! Let us see
whether you ever quarrel with us; and we _are_ friends, are we not; you
and we? Let us see whether you ever quarrel with us! Ah!"

Annie had finished her work; and she was gone before the long kiss of
the new friends was over.

"It is only two days more to the sabbath," thought she. Then she
smiled, and said, "Anyone might call me a child, counting the days as if
I could not wait fo