"Nothing unusual happened. Is this my catechism or yours, Mary?"

"We can divide it. It is your turn to question."

"Do you know why I left home?"

"You had a 'difference' with Uncle John."

"What about?"

"Money, I dare say. I feel sure you were very extravagant while you were
abroad."

"It was not about money."

"About going into business then? You ought to do something, Allan. It is a
shame for you to be so lazy."

"It was not about business. It was about you."

"Me!"

"My dear Mary, for what I am going to say, I beg your pardon in advance,
for I feel keenly the position in which I must appear before you. You know
that the welfare of Drumloch has been my father's object by day, and his
dream by night. He cannot bear to think of a stranger or a strange name in
its old rooms. Long ago, when we were little children, our marriage was
planned, and when the place was clear, and you had grown to a beautiful
womanhood, and I had completed my education, father longed to see us in