nner."

"And you will be alone all day at your work?"

"Yes."

"Then I will come and sit with you, my poor boy," she said.

"Much work I should do in that case!" he said. "But we'll see. In
the mean time go up stairs and get your things off: that young person
below has breakfast ready, I dare say."

"But you have not shown me yet where Mr. Ingram lives," said Sheila
before she went to the door.

"Oh, that is miles away. You have only seen a little bit of London
yet. Ingram lives about as far away from here as the distance you have
just come, but in another direction."

"It is like a world made of houses," said Sheila, "and all filled with
strangers. But you will take me to see Mr. Ingram?"

"By and by, yes. But he is sure to drop in on you as soon as he
fancies you are settled in your new home."

And here, at last, was Mr. Ingram come; and the mere sound of his
voice seemed to carry her back to Borva, so that in talking to him and
waiting on him as of old she would scarcely have been surprised if her
father had walked in to say that a coaster was making for the harbor,
or that Duncan was going over to Stornoway, and Sheila would have to
give him commissions. Her husband did not take the same interest
in the social and political affairs of Borva that Mr. Ingram did.
Lavender had made a pretence of assisting Sheila in her work among
the poor people, but the effort was a hopeless failure. He could
not remember the name of the family that wanted a new boat, and was
visibly impatient when Sheila would sit down to write out for some
aged crone a letter to her grandson in Canada. Now, Ingram, for the
mere sake of occupation, had qualified himself during his various
visits to Lewis, so that he might have become the home minister of the
King of Borva; and Sheila was glad to have one attentive listener as
she described all the wonderful things that had happened in the island
since the previous summer.

But Ingram had got a full and complete holiday on which to come up
and see Sheila; and he had brought with him the wild and startling
proposal that in order that she should take her first plunge into the
pleasures of civilized life, her husband and herself should drive down
to Richmond and dine at the Star and Garter.

"What is that?" said Sheila.

"My dear girl," said her husband seriously, "your ignorance is
something fearful to contemplate. It is quite bewildering. How can a
person who does not know what the Star