ter answered her.

"It was her father who invited you, I believe, not Lady Galbraith,"
he said; "and you understood perfectly that the invitation was not
meant to give her pleasure. You would doubtless have her postpone
her wedding-journey on your account, but my lady is under no
obligation to think of you."--He had heard of her tattle against Sir
Gilbert, and thus rudely showed his resentment.

Miss Kimble burst into tears. Ginevra kissed her, and said,

"Never mind, dear Miss Kimble. You could not help it. The whole
thing was arranged. We are going after my father, and we have the
best horses."

Mr. Torrie laughed outright.

"A new kind of runaway marriage!" he cried. "The happy couple
pursuing the obstinate parent with four horses! Ha! ha! ha!"

"But after the ceremony!" said Mr. Sclater.

Here the servant ran down the steps with a carpet-bag, and opened
the gate for her mistress. Lady Galbraith got into the carriage;
Sir Gilbert followed; there was kissing and tears at the door of it;
Mrs. Sclater drew back; the postilions spurred their horses; off
went the second carriage faster than the first; and the minister's
party walked quietly away, leaving Miss Kimble to declaim to the
maid of all work, who cried so that she did not hear a word she
said. The schoolmistress put on her bonnet, and full of indignation
carried her news of the treatment to which she had been subjected to
the Rev. Fergus Duff, who remarked to himself that it was sad to see
youth and beauty turn away from genius and influence to wed money
and idiocy, gave a sigh, and went to see Miss Lapraik.

Between the second stage and the third, Gibbie and Ginevra came in
sight of their father's carriage. Having arranged with the
postilions that the two carriages should not change horses at the
same places, they easily passed unseen by him, while, thinking of
nothing so little as their proximity, he sat in state before the
door of a village inn.

Just as Mr. Galbraith was beginning to hope the major had contrived
a new approach to the place, the carriage took an unexpected turn,
and he found presently they were climbing, by a zig-zag road, the
height over the Lorrie burn; but the place was no longer his, and to
avoid a sense of humiliation, he avoided taking any interest in the
change.

A young woman--it was Donal's eldest sister, but he knew nothing of
her--opened the door to him, and showed him up the stair to his old
study. The