"Come, Edie! which is it to be?" he asked.

"Naughty boys, to fall out like this!" she cried. "Cousin Jack, you
know how fond I am of you."

"Oh, then go to him!" said Horscroft.

"But I love nobody but Jim. There is nobody that I love like Jim."

She snuggled up to him, and laid her cheek against his breast.

"You see, Jock!" said he, looking over her shoulder.

I did see; and away I went for West Inch, another man from the time that
I left it.



CHAPTER V.


THE MAN FROM THE SEA.

Well, I was never one to sit groaning over a cracked pot. If it could
not be mended, then it is the part of a man to say no more of it.
For weeks I had an aching heart; indeed, it is a little sore now, after
all these years and a happy marriage, when I think of it. But I kept a
brave face on me; and, above all, I did as I had promised that day on
the hillside. I was as a brother to her, and no more: though there were
times when I had to put a hard curb upon myself; for even now she would