"And now I must be off and endeavour to make up for my lost time this morning, running after David! Poor old chap! Don't worry about him, Mary.

I think you may take his word for it that he means to be back before Sunday." He left her then, and all the day and all the evening too she spent the time alone.

It would have been impossible to her to express in words how greatly she missed the companionship of the gentle old man who had so long been the object of her care.

There was a sense of desolate emptiness in the little cottage such as had not so deeply affected her for years--not indeed since the first months following immediately on her own father's death.

That Angus Reay kept away was, she knew, care for her on his part.