ot motor there? It is a lovely run. I meant to take you myself, but I
expect you would enjoy it much better if you went with the boys. It
would be great fun for you all, and take you away from your
philanthropic efforts and let you see round everything clearly."

Jean's eyes lit with interest, and Pamela, seeing the light in them,
went on:

"Everybody should make a pilgrimage in spring: it's the correct thing to
do. Imagine starting on an April morning, through new roads, among
singing birds and cowslips and green new leaves, and stopping at little
inns for the night--lovely, Jean."

Jean gave a great sigh.

"Lovely," she echoed. Lovely, indeed, to be away from housekeeping and
poor people and known paths for a little, and into leafy Warwick lanes
and the rich English country which she had never seen.

"And then," Pamela went on, "you would come back appreciating Priorsford
more than you have ever done. You would come back to Tweed and Peel
Tower and the Hopetoun Woods with a new understanding. There's nothing
so makes you appreciate your home as leaving it.... Bother! That's the
bell. Visitors!"

It was only one visitor--Lewis Elliot.

"Cousin Lewis!" cried Jean. "Where in the world have you been? Three
whole months since you went away and never a word from you. You didn't
even write to Mrs. Hope."

"No," said Lewis; "I was rather busy." He greeted Pamela and sat down.

"Were you so very busy that you couldn't write so much as a post card?
And I don't believe you know that I'm an heiress?"

"Yes; I heard that, but only the other day. It was a most unexpected
windfall. I was delighted to hear about it." Jean looked at him and
wondered if he were well. His long holiday did not seem to have improved
his spirits; he was more absent-minded than usual and disappointingly
uninterested.

"I didn't know you were back in Priorsford," he said, addressing Pamela,
"till I met your brother in London. I called on you just now, and Miss
Bathgate sent me over here."

"Is Biddy amusing himself well?" Pamela asked.

"I should think excellently well. I dined with him one night and he
seemed in great spirits. He seemed to be very much in request. He wanted
to take me about a bit, but I've got out of London ways. I don't seem to
know what to talk about to this new generation and I yawn. I'm better at
home at Laverlaw among the sheep."

Mrs. M'Cosh came in to lay the tea, and Jean said: "You'll have tea
here, Cousin Lewis,