"Ah, but I don't like easy things, and Miss Falconer says men have always given the easiest softest jobs to women, and they won't take them now."
"But you are not a woman, only a little girl. Look at Shags, he has been thumping his tail on the ground for ever so long to attract your attention. He hates these grave grown-up talks. And so do I. We won't grow up, Flora, just yet. I like to pretend I'm just your age. And I'm going to ask you to come out on the loch with me now. I said I would go this afternoon. And I'm going to pretend we have been shipwrecked, and are on a raft searching for land."
In a moment Mysie's knitted brow had cleared. She clapped her hands joyfully.
"Hurra! And I'll row you—and you'll be dying for water, and we daren't drink the sea all round us. And then I'll be desp'rate and drink a lot and go mad in the boat! Oh, it will be fun! Come on! Shall I call Granny's Colin to take you out?"
Rowena was almost sorry she had proposed such a game, but she trusted to her authority and to Colin's stolid good sense to be able to curb Mysie's high spirits when in the boat.
They had a very enjoyable time on the loch that afternoon. And Rowena had the satisfaction of seeing that for the time the problem of the woman in the world no longer troubled the curly head of her little friend. When Mysie finally left her, she said:
"Oh, I wish Miss Falconer would make up games and play with me; but she goes away directly lessons are over. She thinks everything but lessons is waste of time. I'm glad I only have her half a day!"
A few days later General Macdonald came over.
He looked more cheerful than usual, and began to tell Rowena of some new books he had read in town, and which he thought might interest her. He always took the greatest interest in what she was doing, and rarely mentioned his own affairs till other topics of conversation were finished.
"I suppose Mysie's in the seventh heaven of delight at having you back again?" Rowena said presently.