in one
whom he might, through faithful dealing, save from loss and ruin, and
whom he might bring back to the right way again.

"She doesna look like a sinfu' woman," he thought, recalling the glimpse
he had got through the open door, of Allison sitting at peace and safe
from harm. "She is like a woman who has seen sorrow, and who is winning
through wi't. And yon man had an evil look.

"And after a', what hae I to go upon? A name on a headstane in a
farawa' kirkyard! A' the rest came frae the wee wud wifie (the little
mad woman), who micht have made up the story, or only believed it true
because o' the ill-will she bore to yon dark, angry-lookin' man. And
even if the story be true, what call have I to mak' or meddle in it?

"No' an ill word that ever I hae heard has been spoken of the lass since
she came to the manse. She's at peace, and she's doing the duty that
seems to be given her to do, and--I'll bide a wee and seek counsel. And
after a', what hae I to go upon?" repeated Saunners.

But there was plenty to go upon, as he knew well, if he had only been
sure that it would be wise to do anything, or meddle at all in the
matter. He had only spoken a word to Allison; but the wee wifie, while
they sat together on a fallen gravestone, had told him, not the whole
story--she was hardly capable of doing that--but all of it that she had
seen with her own eyes.

Oh! yes. She knew well about bonny Allie Bain. She was in the kirk
when she was married--"sair against her will. It was like a muckle
black corbie carrying off a cushat doo. But the cushat got free for a'
that," said the wee wifie, with nods and smiles and shrill laughter.

But she said nothing of the brother's part in that which followed,
though she told with glee how Brownrig had gotten his deserts before all
was done, and how the bride went one way and the bridegroom went
another, "carried hame wi' sair banes in his gig." She told how first
Allison's mother, and then her father, were put in the grave, where they
both lay with the new stone at their heads, and how "bonny Allie" had
come to say farewell to them there. She grew eager and eloquent when
she came to her own part in the story.

"I was here mysel', as I am maist days, for it's a bonny place and
halesome, though ye mightna think it here among the dead folk. I like
to hae a crack with them that's been awa' for mony a year and day. My
mother lies ower in yon nook, and the man I should hae