t a bad way--some of it may stick. Come, mater, don't look so
horrified. I'm not of the Cousin John sort, but there may be something
decent in me after all."

"I am sure," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that you will try to make her happy,
Philip." She was crying by this time, which was a thing very odious to
Phil. He took her by both hands and gave her a hearty kiss, which was a
thing for which she was not at all prepared.

"I'll do by her----" he said, with a murmur which sounded like an oath,
"as well as I know how."

Perhaps this was not the very greatest comfort to her mother, but it was
the best she was at all likely to get from a man so entirely different
in all ways from her own species. She had her cry out quietly while he
went off to get his bag. The pony carriage was at the door in which
Elinor was to drive him to the station, and a minute after Mrs.
Dennistoun heard his voice in the hall calling to his Nell, his old
girl, in terms which went against all the mother's prejudices of soft
and reverent speech. To have her carefully-trained child, her Elinor,
whom every one had praised and honoured, her maiden-princess so high
apart from all such familiarity, addressed so, gave the old-fashioned
lady a pang. It meant nothing but love and kindness, she said to
herself. He reverenced Elinor as much as it was in such a man to do. He
meant with all his heart to do by her as well as he knew how. It was as
fantastic to object to his natural language as it would be to object to
a Frenchman speaking French. That was his tongue, the only utterance he
knew---- She dried her eyes and went out to the door to see them start.
The sun was blazing over all the brilliant autumnal colours Of the
garden, though it was still full and brilliant summer in the September
morning, and only the asters and dahlias replacing the roses betrayed
the turn of the season. And nothing could be more bright than the face
of Elinor as she sat in the homely little carriage, with the reins
gathered up in her hand. He was going away, indeed, but in a week he was
coming back. Philip, as Mrs. Dennistoun now called him with dignity, yet
a little beginning of affection, packed up his long limbs as well as he
could in the small space. "I believe she'll spill us on the road," he
said, "or bring back the shandrydan with a hole in it."

"There is too much of you, Phil," said Elinor, giving the staid pony a
quiet touch.

"I should like some of those fellows to see