When Lady Macleod got up to go away, Alice kissed her, as was customary with them, and the old lady as she went uttered her customary valediction.

"God bless you, my dear.
Good-bye! I'll come to-morrow if I can." There was therefore no quarrel between them.

But both of them felt that words had been spoken which must probably lead to some diminution of their past intimacy.
When Lady Macleod had gone Alice sat alone for an hour thinking of what had passed between them,--thinking rather of those two men, the worthy man and the wild man, whose names had been mentioned in close connection with herself.

John Grey was a worthy man, a man worthy at all points, as far as she knew him.

She told herself it was so.