Mhor and Peter stood looking on. Jock lifted his head from his books to listen. It was no new thing for the boys to see Jean give away her most treasured possessions: she was a born "Madam Liberality."
"But," Peter Reid objected, "it is rather a rare book. You value it yourself."
"Of course I do," said Jean, "and that is why I am giving it to you. I know you will appreciate it."
Peter Reid took the book as if it was something fragile and very precious. Pamela was puzzled by the expression on his face. He did not seem so much touched by the gift as amused—sardonically amused.
"Thank you," he said. And again, "Thank you!"
"Jock will go down with you to the hotel," Jean said, explaining, when the visitor demurred, that the road was steep and not very well lighted.
"I'll go too," said Mhor, "me and Peter."
"Well, come straight back. Good-bye, Mr. Reid. I'm so glad you came to see The Rigs, but I wish you could have stayed…."
"Is he an old friend?" Pamela asked, when the cavalcade had departed.
"I never saw him before to-day. He once lived in this house and he came back to see it, and he looks ill and I think he is poor, so I asked him to come and stay with us for a week."