fast was beyond hope!"

"Yes," said Ermine, laughing, "I woke with such a certainty that she
would be here and spend the first half hour in the F. U. E, E. that I
wasted a great deal of resignation. But how are you, Colin? You are
much thinner! I am sure by Mrs. Tibbie's account you were much more
ill than you told me."

"Only ill enough to convince me that the need of avoiding a northern
winter was not a fallacy, and likewise to make Tibbie insist on
coming here for fear Maister Colin should not be looked after. It is
rather a responsibility to have let her come, for she has never been
farther south than Edinburgh, but she would not be denied. So she
has been to see you! I told her you would help her to find her
underlings. I thought it might be an opening for that nice little
girl who was so oppressed with lace-making."

"Ah! she has gone to learn wood-cutting at the F. U. E. E.; but I
hope we have comfortably provided Tibbie with a damsel. She made us
a long visit, and told us all about Master Colin's nursery days.
Only I am afraid we did not understand half."

"Good old body," said the Colonel, in tones almost as national as
Tibbie's own. "She was nursery girl when I was the spoilt child of
the house, and hers was the most homelike face that met me. I wish
she may be happy here. And you are well, Ermine?"

"Very well, those drives are so pleasant, and Lady Temple so kind!
It is wonderful to think how many unlooked-for delights have come to
us; how good every one is;" and her eyes shone with happy tears as