of them as different, somehow, that I suppose I do feel as if they were
almost like another race, in a way. Perhaps one would feel like that
with a native Indian, or a Japanese."

"I dare say that is a good simile," he reflected. "Are they different
when you know them well?"

"I have never known one but Wee Brown Elspeth," I answered, thinking it
over.

He did start then, in the strangest way.

"What!" he exclaimed. "What did you say?"

I was quite startled myself. Suddenly he looked pale, and his breath
caught itself.

"I said Wee Elspeth, Wee Brown Elspeth. She was only a child who played
with me," I stammered, "when I was little."

He pulled himself together almost instantly, though the color did not
come back to his face at once and his voice was not steady for a few
seconds. But he laughed outright at himself.

"I beg your pardon," he apologized. "I have been ill and am rather
nervous. I thought you said something you could not possibly have
said. I almost frightened you. And you were only speaking of a little
playmate. Please go on."

"I was only going to say that she was fair like that, fairer than any