"Did this fall at the back there by accident," I asked, "or did you hide it ?" "I did," he answered.

"It was no tale for a young thing to read.

I have hidden many from you.

You were always poking about in corners, Ysobel." Then I sat and thought over past memories for a while and the shadows in the room deepened.
"Why," I said, laggingly, after the silence--"why did I call the child who used to play with me 'Wee Brown Elspeth' ?" "It was your own fancy," was his reply.

"I used to wonder myself; but I made up my mind that you had heard some of the maids talking and the name had caught your ear.