'While waters wimple to the sea,
While day blinks i' the lift sae hie,
Till clay-cauld death shall blin' my e'e
Ye shall be my Dearie!'
'Oh, mother, mother!' cried one boy after another, as they clustered round her, 'indeed we are happy now, since you are the "lady."'
'We didn't rightly understand at first,' continued Jasper.—'But come for a walk, Hollyhock; come along; I have a lot to say to you.'
So Hollyhock and Jasper went out together into the old grounds in the old way, and the sweet, yet sorrowful, week—so maddening to poor Hollyhock, so joyous to Jasper—was forgotten in the spirit of reunion. Oh, it was perfect for the Flower Girl to be with her precious Precious Stone again, and she even loved his dear Scots ways so much that she told him of her little adventure as a 'great secret,' and besought of him not to mention it to any one.
'And so you were taken with that English boy Ivor Chetwode,' he remarked. 'I didn't think you were so fickle. But it's all right now, Hollyhock, and you 'll have a right jolly time at the school.'
CHAPTER XII.
UNDER PROTEST.
Whatever Hollyhock's feelings may have been, she went to school on the following Monday morning with a good grace. She was the sort of girl who, when once she put her hand to the plough, would not take it back again. She refused, however, to listen to any of the stories which Jasmine, Gentian, and the others longed and pined to tell her of the great school.
'I 'll find out for myself,' was her remark; and Mrs Constable advised the other girls to leave this obstinate lass alone as far as possible.