"I can't understand," Elspeth added, "why Dr.Gemmell did not tell you this when he saw you." "Is it a polite letter ?" asked inquisitive Maggy Ann, and Grizel assured her that it was most polite.

"I hardly expected it," said the plain-spoken dame, "for I'm thinking by their manner it's more than can be said of yours." "I merely invited them to come to tea." "And him wi' his leg broke! Did you no ken he was lying on chairs ?" "I did not know it was so bad as that, Maggy Ann.

So my letter seemed to annoy him, did it ?" said Grizel, eagerly, and, I fear, well pleased.
"It angered her most terrible," said Maggy Ann, "but no him.

He gave a sort of a laugh when he read it." "A laugh!" "Ay, and syne she says, 'It is most heartless of Grizel; she does not even ask how you are to-day; one would think she did not know of the accident'; and she says, 'I have a good mind to write her a very stiff letter.' And says he in a noble, melancholic voice, 'We must not hurt Grizel's feelings,' he says.

And she says, 'Grizel thinks it was nothing because you bore it so cheerfully; oh, how little she knows you!' she says; and 'You are too forgiving,' she says.