"Käthchen, I will take the sheep off Meall-na-Fearn!"
Kate Glendinning looked up, startled.
"Yes," the young proprietress said, with decision. "After breakfast you and I must drive away out and see Mr. Watson. If he will give up Meall-na-Fearn on the same terms as Meall-na-Cruagan, good and well; the sheep must go; and the crofters can have the pasturage divided amongst them. I suppose," she added, with something of embarrassment in the clear-shining eyes, "some one would be sure to—to carry the news—out to Heimra? Or a line, perhaps—you might have occasion to send out to him——"
"Mamie!" said Käthchen, in warm protest. "What are you thinking of? Is that the atonement you want to make? Do you mean to cut down Mr. Watson's farm still further just to please Donald Ross? Why, it is madness! To begin with, it would not please him—not in the least; he has told you that you have already been far too generous; and I don't know what he would think of such a needless and useless sacrifice."
"Oh, you think he would not approve?" said Mary, slowly. She was now standing at one of the windows, looking out towards the distant island beyond the wide blue plain of the sea.
"I am pretty sure he would not," Käthchen responded, "especially if he fancied it was done to propitiate him: it would put him in a very awkward position. But I'll tell you what I should do if I were in your place, Mamie——"
"Yes," she said, instantly turning from the window. "What is it? Is there anything I can do, Käthchen? It seems so terrible—and so shameful; and here am I helpless. And then he is so proud—yes, proud and disdainful; I have said it before; only this time he has an ample right to be."
"Well, Mamie, if I were you, I would simply take no notice of what happened yesterday afternoon;" this was Käthchen's advice. "I would assume that the friendly relations between him and you were precisely as they always had been."
"Yes, but how to let him know that that is what I am thinking?" said Mary eagerly—and rather piteously withal.
"I would send him a note," said the intrepid Käthchen.