"Good-bye," said she, at the hall door, and she held out her hand. "I am so much obliged to you."
And then of course he did shake hands with her in bidding her farewell—and raised his cap—and was gone.
Mary returned to the dining-room.
"Well, Mamie," said Käthchen, with a demure smile, "that is about the most extraordinary interview I ever heard of. A most handsome young gentleman calls upon a young lady—his first visit—and there is nothing talked of on either side but sheriff officers and summonses, rent, compensation, drains, crofts, grazing, and Acts of Parliament. Of course he was quite as bad as you; but all the same, you might at least have asked the poor man to stay to lunch."
"Oh, Käthchen!" Mary exclaimed, starting to her feet, her face on fire. "Shall I send Barbara after him? I never thought of it! How frightfully rude of me—and he has come all the way over from Heimra to tell me about this eviction. What shall I do? Shall I send after him?"
"I don't think you can," said Käthchen; "it would make the little oversight all the more marked. You'd better ask him the next time you see him—if you have forgotten certain warnings."
"What warnings?"
"Why, about his general character and his occupations," said Kate Glendinning, regarding her friend.
Mary was silent for a moment or two; then she said—
"We need not believe the worst of any one; and when you think of that old woman coming all the way from Canada to see him, that of itself is a testimonial to character that not many could bring forward—"