'Yes, Jessie.'
'She is not wrong, Chris,' said Jessie, with a sigh; 'but we all seem to be playing at cross purposes, and not one of us seems to understand the other.'
'I think I understand you, Jessie.'
'Do you, Chris?' she asked, in a tenderer tone.
'If others mistrust you, I don't. I know that everything you do is right.' She shook her head gently. 'No, you shall not make me think otherwise, Jessie. You and I will stand together, come what will.'
'Against all the rest of the world,' she said, quoting my words.
'Yes, against all the rest of the world, Jessie,' I replied eagerly.
'It will never be, Chris; I would not accept such a service from you if the whole happiness of my life depended upon it. Ah me! Often and often I think what an unhappy day that was for all of us when I came among you.'
'You said so on the Sunday morning that you asked uncle Bryan to come to church with us; but you repented immediately afterwards, if you remember, and said you were not sorry, for if it had happened so, you would not have known mother.'
'I have learnt something from her, Chris--something good, I hope.'