hat's all right for
when you're dead. I want to make happiness while I'm alive. I don't
think a million pounds would be too much for all I want to do."

"Aw, Jean," said Mhor, "if you had a million pounds would you buy me a
bicycle?"

"A bicycle," said Jean, "and a motor and an aeroplane and a Shetland
pony and a Newfoundland pup. I'll make a story for you in bed to-night
all about what you would have if I were rich."

"And Jock, too?"

Being assured that Jock would not be overlooked Mhor grabbed Peter round
the neck and proceeded to babble to him about bicycles and aeroplanes,
motors and Newfoundland pups.

Jean looked apologetically at her guests.

"When you're poor you've got to dream," she said. "Oh, must you go, Mr.
Reid? But you'll come back to-morrow, won't you? We would honestly like
you to come and stay with us."

"Thank you," said Peter Reid, "but I am going back to London in a day or
two. I am obliged to you for your hospitality, especially for singing me
'Strathairlie.' I never thought to hear it again. I wonder if I might
trouble you to write me out the words."

"But take the book," said Jean, running to get it and pressing it into
his hands. "Perhaps you'll find other songs in it you used to know and
like. Take it to keep."

Pamela dropped her embroidery-frame and watched the scene.

Mhor and Peter stood looking on. Jock lifted his head from his books to
listen. It was no new thing for the boys to see Jean give away her most
treasured possessions: she was a born "Madam Liberality."

"But," Peter Reid objected, "it is rather a rare book. You value it
yourself."

"Of course I do," said Jean, "and that is why I am giving it to _you_. I
know you will appreciate it."

Peter Reid took the book as if it was something fragile and very
precious. Pamela was puzzled by the expression on his face. He did not
seem so much touched by the gift as amused--sardonically amused.

"Thank you," he said. And again, "Thank you!"

"Jock will go down with you to the hotel," Jean said, explaining, when
the visitor demurred, that the road was steep and not very well lighted.

"I'll go too," said Mhor, "me and Peter."

"Well, come straight back. Good-bye, Mr. Reid. I'm so glad you came to
see The Rigs, but I wish you could have stayed...."

"Is he an old friend?" Pamela asked, when the cavalcade had departed.

"I never saw him before to-day. He once lived in this house and he came
back to see it, and he looks