'Not help it!' cried Albinia, looking at him with her clear indignant
eyes. 'How can you be such a poor creature, Gilbert?'

'It is very hard!' exclaimed Gilbert; 'I must go past Robble's Leigh
twice every day of my life, and Archie will come out and be at me.'

'That is the very temptation you have to resist,' said Albinia.
'Fight against it, pray against it, resolve against it; ride fast,
and don't linger and look after him.'

He looked desponding and miserable. If she could only have put a
spirit into him!

'Shall I walk and meet you sometimes before you get to Robbie's
Leigh!'

His face cleared up, but the cloud returned in a moment.

'What is it?' she asked. 'Only tell me. You know I wish for nothing
so much as to help you.'

He did confess that there was nothing he should like better, if
Archie would not be all the worse another time, whenever he should
catch him alone.

'But surely, Gilbert, he is not always lying in ambush for you, like
a cat for a mouse. You can't be his sole game.'

'No, but he is coming or going, or out with his gun, and he will
often come part of the way with me, and he is such a droll fellow!'