“I do know it, Sir. I thank you for your kind words anent my dear feyther and mither; and I shall be a very proud and happy girl, if you will stand a few minutes by the side o’ Cluny and Christine. It will be for our honor and pleasure!”
“Captain Macpherson asked me to call and see 357 him, and I will then find out your arrangements, and very proudly drop into them.” Then he walked to the foot of the hill with her, and could not help noticing the school, from which at least eighty boys and girls were issuing with a shout and a leap for the playground. On this sight he looked pleasantly for a few moments, and then smiling at Christine said:
“Our enterprise! It appears to be attractive.”
Not knowing just what reply to make, she smiled, and nodded, and gave him her hand. “Good-by, Christine! May I call you Christine? In a day or two it will not be permissible. May I say it until then?”
“Christine is my name. Call me Christine always.”
“Captain Macpherson would have something to say to that.”
“What for? He has naething to do with my name.”
“The first thing he does, after you are his wife, is to change it.”
“He can only change the family name. Every one o’ us in the family has that name. It is common to all, far and near. Cluny can change that, and I hae no objections; but he wouldna daur to touch a letter of my christened name. That is my ain, as much as my hands and my eyes are my ain—ay, and a gey bit mair sae—for a man may claim the wark o’ your hands, and the glint o’ your e’en, but he canna 358 mak’ use o’ your name. It is o’er near forgery—and punishment. Sae I am Christine to yoursel’ neither for wark, nor for use, but just for pure honest friendship—Christine, as lang as we baith wish it sae.”
“Thank you, Christine. I am proud of the favor!”