l. "Go to them. They will be glad of thy company."

"Doubtful is their gladness. Two are company, three are a crowd. Yet
so it is! I must run into danger, like the rest of women."

"Is that thy Easter gown, Sunna?" asked Mistress Brodie.

"It is. Dost thou like it?"

"Who would not like it? The rumour goes abroad that thy grandfather
sent to Inverness for it. Others say it came to thee from Edinburgh."

"Wrong are both stories. I am happy to say that Sunna Vedder gave
herself a dress so pretty and so suitable."

With these smiling words she left the room and the elder women
shrugged their shoulders and looked expressively at each other. "What
can a sensible man like Boris Ragnor see in such a harum-scarum girl!"
was Rahal Ragnor's question, and Barbara Brodie thought it was all
Adam Vedder's fault. "He ought to have married some sensible woman who
would have brought up the girl as girls ought to be brought up," she
answered; adding, "We may as well remember that the management of
women, at any age, is a business clean beyond Adam Vedder's
capabilities."

"Adam is a clever man, Barbie."

"Book clever! What is the use of book wisdom when you have a live
girl, full of her own way, to deal with?"

"Conall chose the husbands for his daughters. They were quite suitable
to the girls and they have been very happy with them."

"Thora will choose for herself."

"Perhaps, that may be so. Thora has been spoiled. Her marriage need
not yet be thought of. In two or three years, we will consider it. The
little one has not yet any dreams of that kind."

"Such dreams come in a moment--when you are not thinking of them."

In fact, at that very moment Thora was learning the mystery of
"falling in love"; and there is hardly a more vital thing in life than
this act. For it is something taking place in the subconscious self;
it is a revolution, and a growth. It happened that after dinner,
Conall wished to hear Ian sing again that loveliest of all metrical
Collects, "Lord of All Power and Might," and Thora went with Ian to do
her part as accompanist on the piano. As they sang Conall appeared to
fall asleep, and no more music was asked for.

Then Ian lifted a book full of illustrations of the English lake
district, and they sat down on the sofa to examine it. Ian had once
been at Keswick and Ambleside, and he began to tell her about Lake
Windemere and these lovely villages. He was holding Thora's hand and
glancing constantly in