“But why ‘must?’” said he, eagerly—­“why ‘must?’ If you knew how I looked forward to the blackness of this winter away up there—­so far away from you that I shall forget the sound of your voice—­oh! you cannot know what it is to me?”

He had sat down again, his eyes, with a sort of pained and hunted look in them, bent on the floor.

“But there is a ‘must,’ you know,” she said, cheerfully, “and we ought to be sensible folk and recognize it.  You know I ought to have a probationary period, as it were—­like a nun, you know, just to see if she is fit to—­”

Here Miss White paused, with a little embarrassment; but presently she charged the difficulty, and said, with a slight laugh,—­

“To take the veil, in fact.  You must give me time to become accustomed to a whole heap of things:  if we were to do anything suddenly now, we might blunder into some great mistake, perhaps irretrievable.  I must train myself by degrees for another kind of life altogether; and I am going to surprise you, Keith—­I am indeed.  If papa takes me to the Highlands next year, you won’t recognize me at all.  I am going to read up all about the Highlands, and learn the tartans, and the names of fishes and birds; and I will walk in the rain and try to think nothing about it; and perhaps I may learn a little Gaelic:  indeed, Keith, when you see me in the Highlands, you will find me a thorough Highland-woman.”

“You will never become a Highland-woman,” he said, with a grave kindness.  “Is it needful?  I would rather see you as you are than playing a part.”

Her eyes expressed some quick wonder, for he had almost quoted her father’s words to her.

“You would rather see me as I am?” she said, demurely.  “But what am I?  I don’t know myself.”

“You are a beautiful and gentle-hearted Englishwoman,” he said, with honest admiration—­“a daughter of the South.  Why should you wish to be anything else?  When you come to us, I will show you a true Highland-woman—­that is, my cousin Janet.”

“Now you have spoiled all my ambition,” she said, somewhat petulantly.  “I had intended spending all the winter in training myself to forget the habits and feelings of an actress, and I was going to educate myself for another kind of life; and now I find that when I go to the Highlands you will compare me with your cousin Janet!”

“That is impossible,” said he, absently, for he was thinking of the time when the summer seas would be blue again, and the winds soft, and the sky clear; and then he saw the white boat of the Umpire going merrily out to the great steamer to bring the beautiful stranger from the South to Castle Dare!

“Ah, well, I am not going to quarrel with you on this our last day together,” she said, and she gently placed her soft white hand on the clinched fist that rested on the table.  “I see you are in great trouble—­I wish I could lessen it.  And yet how could I wish that you could think of me less, even during the long winter evenings, when it will be so much more lonely for you than for me?  But you must leave me my hobby all the same; and you must think of me always as preparing myself and looking forward; for at least you know you will expect me to be able to sing a Highland ballad to your friends.”