grandmothers did not hesitate to appear, and our great-aunts went forth
armed for the pursuit and capture of our great-uncles, the dress was
drawn up so as to mould the contour of both breasts, and in the nook
between, a cairngorm brooch maintained it. Here, too, surely in a very
enviable position, trembled the nosegay of primroses. She wore on her
shoulders - or rather on her back and not her shoulders, which it
scarcely passed - a French coat of sarsenet, tied in front with Margate
braces, and of the same colour with her violet shoes. About her face
clustered a disorder of dark ringlets, a little garland of yellow French
roses surmounted her brow, and the whole was crowned by a village hat of
chipped straw. Amongst all the rosy and all the weathered faces that
surrounded her in church, she glowed like an open flower - girl and
raiment, and the cairngorm that caught the daylight and returned it in a
fiery flash, and the threads of bronze and gold that played in her hair.

Archie was attracted by the bright thing like a child. He looked at her
again and yet again, and their looks crossed. The lip was lifted from
her little teeth. He saw the red blood work vividly under her tawny
skin. Her eye, which was great as a stag's, struck and held his gaze.
He knew who she must be - Kirstie, she of the harsh diminutive, his
housekeeper's niece, the sister of the rustic prophet, Gib - and he
found in her the answer to his wishes.

Christina felt the shock of their encountering glances, and seemed to
rise, clothed in smiles, into a region of the vague and bright. But the
gratification was not more exquisite than it was brief. She looked away
abruptly, and immediately began to blame herself for that abruptness.
She knew what she should have done, too late - turned slowly with her
nose in the air. And meantime his look was not removed, but continued
to play upon her like a battery of cannon constantly aimed, and now