‘It had compensations,’ said Gladys quickly.  ’And I do think, that if it is all as you say, there is more sincerity among poor people than among rich.  There is no court paid, anyhow, to money and position.’

‘My dear, you are not at all complimentary to us,’ laughed Clara.  ’Your ingenuousness is truly refreshing.’

‘I am not speaking about you, and you know it quite well,’ answered Gladys.  ’But if the world is as fond of outward things as you say, I do not wish to know anything of it.  I could not feel at home in it, I am sure.’

’My dear little girl, wait till your place is put in order, and you take up your abode in it, Miss Graham of Bourhill, the envied and the admired of a whole county, and you will change your mind about the world.  Just wait till the next Hunt Ball at Ayr, and we’ll see what changes it will bring.’

There was no refuting Clara’s good-natured worldly wisdom, and Gladys had to be silent.  But she pondered many things in her heart.

‘When do we go to Troon?  Isn’t it next week?’

‘Yes, on Tuesday.’

‘Do you think,’ she asked then, with a slight hesitation, ’that Mrs. Fordyce would allow me to pay a little visit to my old home before I go, for the last time?’

There was all the simplicity and wistfulness of a child in her manner, and it touched Clara to the quick.

’Gladys, are you a prisoner here, dear?  Don’t vex me by saying things like that.  Do you not know that you can go out and in just as you like?  Of course you shall go.  I will take you myself, if mamma cannot, and wait for you outside.’

True to her promise, Clara ordered the brougham on Monday afternoon, and carried Gladys off to Colquhoun Street.  Clara was, like most quiet people, singularly observant, and she noted with interest, not unmixed with pity, how nervous Gladys became as they neared their destination.  Mingling with her pity was a great curiosity to see the young man whose image seemed to dwell in the constant heart of Gladys.  It was a romance, redeemed from vulgarity by the beauty and the sweet individuality of the chief actor in it.

‘I shall not knock.  Don’t let James get down,’ cried Gladys, when the carriage stopped at the familiar door.  ’I shall just run in.  I have a fancy to enter unannounced.’

Clara nodded, and Gladys, springing out, opened and closed the familiar door.  Her very limbs shook as she went lightly along the dark passage and pushed open the kitchen door.  It was unchanged, yet somehow sadly changed.  A desolateness chilled her to the soul as she looked round the wide, gaunt place, saw the feeble fire choking in the grate, and the remains of a poor meal on the uncovered table.  The light struggling through the barred windows had never looked upon a more cheerless picture.  All things, they say, are judged by contrast.  Perhaps it was the contrast to what she had just left which made Gladys think she had never seen her old home look more wretched and forlorn.