formidable in its dimensions than it did from the moorland, where he
used to get a glimpse of it while he watched the sheep, and then it
looked no larger than the grey cairn which he made his watch-tower, but
now it seemed to frown above him, and the windows, too, began to create
uncomfortable sensations in his mind as well as Jean's.

With the sight of his friend of the stepping-stones, his flagging
courage returned, for had he not conversed with her on his own domain,
and been invited by her to pay this visit?

"This is Jean," he said, immediately looking up at Grace with his frank
smile, as he gave his sister a little push forward.

"I have kept my tryst, ye see. You thought, maybe, I wouldna mind," he
added, smiling again at the absurdity of the idea that he should forget
such an eventful engagement. "I am so very glad to see you, Geordie,
and Jean, too. I must say I was a little afraid that you might forget
to come," added Grace, quite in a flutter of delight over the arrival of
her scholars, which they little dreamt of. Then she happened to glance
at Jean, who stood clutching her brother's corduroys in a very
frightened attitude, and Grace remembered that this was also a new
experience for the scholars, and perhaps they, too, might be suffering
from the nervousness which had been following her from the lawn to the
class-room for the last hour as she waited for them.

Putting out her hand to Jean, she said, in an encouraging tone, "Come, I
dare say you must be tired after your walk in this hot afternoon. We
shall go to a little room that my aunt has given us to sit in, and see
if we cannot find something nice to read and learn," and Grace led the
way up the old steps and across the hall, then through what appeared to