ask me to dance.
Watching him and me were all the girls. They saw how he slighted me,
and made little nods and laughs about it."

"It was thy own fault. When Boris came into the room, he looked for
thee. With McLeod thou wert dancing. With that Scot thou wert dancing!
The black look on his face, I saw it, thou should have seen it and
have given him a smile--Pshaw! Women know so much--and do so little.
By storm thou ought to have taken the whole affair for thy own. I am
disappointed in thee--yes, I am disappointed."

"Why, Grandfather?"

"An emergency thou had to face, and thou shirked it. When Boris
entered the room, straight up to him thou should have gone; with an
outstretched hand and a glad smile thou should have said: 'I am
waiting for thee, Boris!' Then thou had put all straight that was
crooked, and carried the evening in thy own hands."

"I will pay Boris for this insult. Yes, I will, and thou must help
me."

"To quarrel with Boris? To injure him in any way? No! that I will not
do. It would be to quarrel also with my old friend Conall. Not thee!
Not man or woman living, could make me do that! Sit down and I will
tell thee a better way."

"No, I will not sit down till thou say 'yes' to what I ask"; for some
womanly instinct told her that while Adam was cowering over the hearth
blaze and she stood in all her beauty and splendour above him, she
controlled the situation. "Thou must help me!"

"To what or whom?"

"I want to marry Boris."

"Dost thou love him?"

"Better than might be. When mine he is all mine, then I will love
him."

"That is little to trust to."

"Thou art wrong. It is of reasons one of the best and surest. Not
three months ago, a little dog followed thee home, an ugly,
half-starved little mongrel, not worth a shilling; but it was
determined to have thee for its master, and thou called it thy dog,
and now it is petted and pampered and lies at thy feet, and barks at
every other dog, and thou says it is the best dog on the Island. It is
the same way with husbands. Thou hast seen how Mary Minorie goes on
about her bald, scrimpy husband; yet she burst out crying when he put
the ring on her finger. Now she tells all the girls that marriage is
'Paradise Regained.' When Boris is my husband it will be well with me,
and not bad for him. He will be mine, and we love what is our own."

"Why wilt thou marry any man? Thou wilt be rich."

"One must do as the rest of the world does--and the worl