noises, and on the grass almost as silently as
if it had been another mossy cloud. The leaves of the ivy hanging over
the windows quivered and shook, each for itself, beneath the drops; and
between the drops, one of which would have beaten him to the earth,
wound and darted in safety a great humble bee.

Kate and Alec went to the open window and looked out on the rainy
world, breathing the odours released from the grass and the ground.
Alec turned from the window to Kate's face, and saw upon it a keen, yet
solemn delight. But as he gazed, he saw a cloud come over it. The
arched upper lip dropped sadly upon the other, and she looked troubled
and cold. Instinctively he glanced out again for the cause. The rain
had become thick and small, and a light opposing wind disordered its
descent with broken and crossing lines.

This change from a summer to a winter rain had altered Kate's mood, and
her face was now, as always, a reflex of the face of nature.

"Shut the window, please Alec," she said, with a shiver.

"We'll have a fire directly," said Alec.

"No, no," returned Kate, trying to smile. "Just fetch me a shawl from
the closet in my room."

Alec had not been in his own room since Kate came. He entered it with a
kind of gentle awe, and stood just within the door, gazing as if
rebuked.

From a pair of tiny shoes under the dressing-table, radiated a whole
roomful of feminity. He was almost afraid to go further, and would not
have dared to look in the mirror. In three days her mere presence had
made the room marvellous.

Recovering himself, he hastened to the cloaet, got the shawl, and went
down the stair three steps at a time.

"Couldn't you find it, Alec?" said Kate.

"Oh! yes; I found it at once," answered Alec, blushing to the eyes.

I wonder whether Kate guessed what made the boy blush. But it does not
matter much now. She did look curiously at him for a moment.

"Just help me with my shawl," she said.

CHAPTER L.

During all this time, Annie had seen scarcely anything of her aunt
Margaret Anderson. Ever since Bruce had offended her, on the occasion
of her first visit, she had taken her custom elsewhere, and had never
even called to see her niece. Annie had met her several times in the
street, and that was all. Hence, on one of the fine afternoons of that
unusually fine summer, and partly, perhaps, from missing the kindness
of Mrs Forbes, Annie took a longing to see her old aunt, and set out