in the autumn. Thou shalt either stay with Mrs. Brodie or at
the Queen's Hotel on Prince's Street, with old Adam Vedder."

"Best of all is thy last offer. I will stay with thee. I am used to
men's society. Women bore me."

"Women bore me also."

"Know this, there are three women who do not bore thee. Shall I speak
their names?"

"I will not hinder thee."

"Sunna Vedder?"

"I love her. She cannot bore me."

"Rahal Ragnor?"

"I respect her. She does not bore me--often."

"Yes, that is so; it is but seldom thou sees her. Well, then, Barbara
Brodie?"

"I once loved her. She can never be indifferent to me."

"Thou hast told me the truth and I will not follow up this catechism."

"For that favour, I am thy debtor. I might not always have been so
truthful. Now, then, be honest with me. What wilt thou do all the
summer, with no lover to wait on thy whims and fancies?"

"On thee I shall rely. Where thou goes, I will go, and if thou stay at
home, with thee I will stay. Thou can read to me. I have never heard
any of our great Sagas and that is a shame. I complain of that neglect
in my education! I heard Maximus Grant recite from 'The Banded Men and
Haakon the Good,' when I was in Edinburgh, and I said to myself, 'how
much finer is this, than opera songs, sung with a Scotch burr, in the
Italian; or than English songs, sung by Scotch people who pronounce
English after the Scotch fashion!' Then I made up my mind that this
coming winter I would let Edinburgh drawing-rooms hear the songs of
Norse warriors; the songs in which the armour rattles and the swords
shine!"

"That, indeed, will befit thee! Now, then, for the summer, keep
thyself well in hand. Say nothing of thy plans, for if but once the
wind catches them, they will soon be for every one to talk to death."

Adam was finishing his plate of rice pudding and cream when he gave
this advice; and with it, he moved his chair from the table and said:
"Come into the garden. I want to smoke. Thou knows a good dinner
deserves a pipe, and a bad one demands it."

Then they went into the garden and talked of the flowers and the young
vegetables, and said not a word of Edinburgh and the Sagas that the
winds could catch and carry round to human folk for clash and gossip.
And when the pipe was out, Adam said: "Now I am going into the town.
That Burns story is on my lips, my teeth cannot keep my tongue behind
them much longer."

"A good time will be thine. I wish that I c