“Were you there, John?” said Allison wondering.
“Surely, I was there as Captain Douglas’ friend. He had a right to ask me, you see.”
“You know him, John, and Miss Mary?”
“We sailed together, and I had seen Captain Douglas before that time.”
“Yes, when he went to see my brother. A friend helped him, he told me, a friend of Willie’s, and I knew it must be you.”
John told something of the interview between them, and when a pause came, Robert, who had been standing all this time, said:
“There is just one thing more which I must tell my mother. When are you coming home to the manse? and—when is it to be?”
“You are a bold lad, Robin. I have not dared to ask that yet,” said John.
But when Robert was gone he asked it, and Allison was kind and let him “name the day.”
“A week hence! But is not that very soon, considering all you have to do?”