That Agnes never treated Cosmo with this degree of protective condescension, arose from the fact that she was very nearly as much a child of light as he; only, being a woman, she was keener of perception, and being older, felt the more of the mother that every woman feels, and made the most of it.

It was to her therefore a merely natural thing to act his protector.
Indeed with respect to the Warlock family in general, she counted herself possessed of the right to serve any one of them to the last drop of her blood.

From infancy she had heard the laird spoken of--without definite distinction between the present and the last--as the noblest, best, and kindest of men, as the power which had been for generations over the family of the Gracies, for their help and healing; and hence it was impressed upon her deepest consciousness, that one of the main reasons of her existence was her relation to the family of Glenwarlock.
Notwithstanding the familiarity I have shown between them--Agnes had but lately begun to put the MASTER before Cosmo's name, and as often forgot it--the girl, as they went towards the castle, although they were walking in deep dusk, and entirely alone, kept a little behind the boy--not behind his back, but on his left hand in the next rank.

No spy most curious could have detected the least love-making between them, and their talk, in the still, dark air, sounded loud all the way as they went.

Strange talk it would have been counted by many, and indeed unintelligible, for it ranged over a vast surface, and was the talk of two wise children, wise not above their own years only, but immeasurably above those of the prudent.