'I admit that it was; and now——'
'Just learn this, dearest mamma; I married a short time ago to please you, and, now that God in His goodness has spared and restored Evan to me, I shall marry next to please myself.'
'It is very strange how some girls get it into their head that there is a special virtue in a man because he is poor.'
'Evan isn't poor now,' replied Eveline, stoutly. 'Stratherroch is nearly free, and, if it were not, I have enough for two.'
'Your jointure dies with you,' said Lady Aberfeldie, sourly.
'Dear Evan will never think of that, mamma; and long before that day comes every acre, every tuft of heather in Stratherroch will be disencumbered and free.'
'You have schemed out the whole programme. But as your father's daughter, and the widow of Sir Paget Puddicombe, Baronet, you are entitled to look higher.'
'I don't want to do so, mamma,' said Eveline, coyly and laughingly; 'you see, it is only a case of "heaping up riches, and ye know not who shall gather them."'
Eveline was in a kind of triumphant and defiant mood, such as her mother had never seen her in before, for she added,
'The whirligig of time brings curious things to pass, so Lady Puddicombe will be Mrs. Cameron of Stratherroch after all.'