nd wondered at.

Her face was beautiful, but it wanted the colour and brightness which
made "a bonny face" to the eyes of most of the folk of Nethermuir. It
was thin and sallow when she first came there, and the gloom upon it,
and "the dazed look" which came when she was suddenly spoken to, did
much to mar and shadow its beauty. And so did the great mutch, with its
double "set-up" border of thick muslin, which was tied close around it,
covering the ears, and the round throat, and hiding all the beautiful
hair, which after the fever was beginning to grow again. But nothing
could disguise the firm, erect form, which might have been thought too
tall, perhaps, if it had not been round and full in proportion; and the
short gown confined at the waist by the long strings of her apron, and
the rather scant petticoat of dark winsey that fell beneath it, are not
such unbecoming garments as might be supposed by those accustomed to
garments of a more elaborate fashion.

Her strength was quite as highly appreciated by the stooping weavers and
shoemakers of Nethermuir as was her beauty, and the evidences which she
unconsciously gave of it were much admired and often recounted among
them. When "Auld Maggie" fell on the slide which the town laddies had
made in the street, and tailor Coats ran to get some one to help to
carry her home, "the minister's lass" lifted her in her arms, and had
her in her bed with a hot-water bottle at her feet before he came back
again. And while every other woman in the street needed to take at
least one rest, at a neighbour's door, between the pump and her own,
"the minister's lass," turning neither head nor eye, moved on without a
pause, till she disappeared round the close that led to her
kitchen-door.

"And, for that matter, except for the way her face is turned, ye wud
never ken whether her buckets were fou or toom" (full or empty), said an
admiring observer, as he watched her steady and rapid steps along the
street.

So poor Allison, for one reason and another, could not be overlooked.
Her name--or rather the name which her place gave her--"the minister's
lass," was on many lips for a time. Absolutely nothing was known about
her except what the kindly and guarded letter of Dr Fleming had
conveyed; yet much was supposed and said concerning her, and some things
were repeated till they were believed, which she might have resented had
she heard of them. They might have angered her, and so have