I loved you, Scotia, and that I intended to tell you so."

It was at this point Bertha entered the room, and all further confidence was arrested. For in a few minutes the Colonel and his household joined them, and the Exercise and the supper came in their due course; and after it, the parting words. Bertha was determined to hear them. She kept close to Scotia's side, and she was unusually effusive to the minister.

It is a

Scotia

She thought she heard all that was said. She heard nothing; and yet everything was said. clumsy lover that cannot speak with shut lips. was quite satisfied with her lover's "adieu!" It went to her heart by a more direct road than through the winding ear-path.

She was now ready for her journey. It began very early in the morning, and it did not end until the shadows of evening were falling across the dark, stately-looking Yarrow House. Scotia regarded it with interest and without fear. And as she did so, the wide doors were flung open, and she saw advancing through the brilliantly lighted hall, an old lady very magnificently dressed.

She put out her hands to clasp Scotia's hands, she looked at her with kind curiosity, she said pleasantly: "My dear, you are very welcome! What is your name?"

And Scotia, bending her beautiful head, answered with a smile," My name is Scotia!"

IX.

ANGUS BRUCE DECIDES.

But here they found a fervid race
Whose sternly-glowing piety

Scorned paper laws. Their free-bred souls
Went not with priests to school,

To trim the tippet and the stole,

And pray by printed rule.

But they would cast the eager word

From their heart's fiery core;
Smoking and red, as God had stirred

The Hebrew men of yore.

-Blackie.

"WHAT think you of our new niece, Ann?"

"I think she is a good lassie, and a beauty; and as our son was born wi' eyes in his head, he has doubtless found it out."

"Ah, Ann, what a grand thing youth is! And yet the remembrance of it leaves a sigh. She reminds me of a Jemima Yarrow, long dead and forgotten, and I look at her and sigh for myself."

"Yes, yes! It is aye the past, and the future, we set store by; the poor, ill-used present is naething to us; and yet it brings us handfuls o' blessings."

"Do not preach, Ann. Leave that to our son. One preacher in a family is enough."

"She kens weel how to dress hersel'. She maist took my breath from me when she came down the

oak stairway in that floating garment o' white tulle, wi' the silvery stars shot through it."

"And the pale azure foundation-that was my thought. Scotia is well aware that a woman is the least part of herself. I thank my stars

"You hae God to thank, Lady Jemima, and the stars are na yours to swear by."

"You are preaching again, Ann. It is well seen where our son gets his pulpit taste. I have asked Scotia all about her own people, and about the Cupars, and others whose names and connections I happen to know, and we have talked of this, that, and the other, but never a word came out of her mouth about Angus Bruce. It is very suspicious. Sometimes she is very quiet. I believe the girl has a secret trouble." "Man-and woman mair than man-is born to trouble. There is nae happiness here below."

"Nonsense, Ann! It is a sour philosophy that asserts man never is, but always to be, blest. I was once in love, and very near in paradise; "--and the old lady smiled and sighed, and straightened her mittens, and turned her rings around to memories that sent a flood of rose color into her cheeks.

This conversation occurred on the evening of the third day of Scotia's stay with her aunt, and it was interrupted by her entrance. She came in with her work-basket in her hand, and Lady Yarrow nodded. approval of her industry. Ann was already seated at the table, hemstitching some cambric for Lady Yarrow's morning gowns; and the atmosphere of the fine room, filled with fire and candle-light, was exceedingly calm and cheerful, and conducive to sympathetic companionship.

Scotia had fallen readily into the ways of a house

hold so finely and quietly ordered. Her life was likely to be methodical, but not devoid of interest. On the previous evening there had been a quiet dinner party, consisting of Judge Cardiff, and the Rev. Mr. Geddes, and young Captain Ochiltree, and Dr. McManus, one of the bright literary lights which illumined the pages of Blackwood and the young reviews; and after a merry dinner they had gone to a military dance, given by the commander of the castle troops.

To Scotia it had been a very grand and notable affair; and she had just spent a couple of hours writing her father and mother an account of both dinner and dance. She came into the room with the excitement of the memory in her glinting eyes and rosy face; and took the low chair opposite Lady Yarrow, which a kindly glance indicated to her, and which placed her within the direct observation of both Lady Yarrow and Ann.

"I like to see you, my dear. Where have you been for the past three hours?"

"Two hours, aunt. I was writing a letter to my Father, and was telling him all about Mr. Geddes, and the captain and the judge. It was quite a famous party for a country girl, Aunt."

"Yes; the Law and the Gospel, the Sword and the Pen, crossed knives and forks together. What did you think of the minister? He is a descendant of that Jenny Geddes who threw her cutty stool at the English preacher's head, when he 'daured' to read prayers in a Scotch kirk. Poor Jenny believed reading prayers to be nothing less than popery."

"And plenty o' good people think wi' Jenny yet, and are na that far wrang."

"Yet, Ann, if Jenny had only listened, instead of

flying into a fishwife passion, she would have heard one of the grandest collects in the English service."

"I ken naething o' col-lects," said Ann sourly. "col-lects are na prayers, and folk hae little sense o' true religion wha fling a col-lect in the face o' Almighty God."

"But a collect is a prayer, Ann."

"I'm doubting it, Miss Rodney. If it be a prayer, why call it out o' its name?"

"Ann," said Lady Yarrow, "Ann, do not be a bigot. The collect Jenny Geddes got into a passion anent, is one of the grandest prayers in the world; and if you will put down your needles, and listen in a proper spirit, I will say it for you." She stood up reverently as a little child, and while Scotia and Ann sat with dropped eyes and still hands, she recited the prayer which had once raised such a tumult in the High Kirk of Edinburgh :

Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of Thy Name; increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Thy great mercy, keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

son.

"You see," she added, as she resumed her seat, and returned to her usual voice, "I learned it specially to be ready for her reverend great-great-grandHe is very proud of his descent from the outrageously bigoted old woman, and I was not going to have Jenny Geddes pushed on my approbation. I have had the collect ready for the minister for a year, and he has not yet given me my chance. At the first of our acquaintance, it was the blue and yellow wisdom of the Reviews; and now it is the Free Kirk, and Dr. Chalmers, and again, the Free Kirk."