'Then I will go with you, pappa,' she said promptly.
'You may stay if you choose,' said he. 'You may stay and take my share as well as your own. But I'm going to see what newspapers the mail brought this morning; and there may be letters.'
'And I have plenty to do also,' said she. 'I mean to call on that pretty Miss Douglas I told you of—the Doctor's daughter. And do you think she would come along and dine with us?—or must I ask her mother as well?'
'I don't know what the society rules are here,' he answered. 'I suspect you will have to find out.'
'And Ronald—do you think he would come in and spend the evening with us? I can't find out anything about him—it's all phantom-minnows and things when he is in the boat.'
'Well, I should like that too,' said he: for he could not forsake the theories which he had so frequently propounded to her.
And so they set forth for the inn, leaving the men to get the boats back when they could; and after a long and brave battling with rain and wind they achieved shelter at last. And then Miss Carry had to decide what costume would be most appropriate for an afternoon call in the Highlands—on a day filled with pulsating hurricanes. Her bodice of blue with its regimental gold braid she might fairly adopt—for it could be covered over and protected; but her James I. hat with its gray and saffron plumes she had to discard—she had no wish to see it suddenly whirling away in the direction of Ben Loyal.
CHAPTER XVI.
DREAMS AND VISIONS.
Miss Hodson was in no kind of anxiety or embarrassment about this visit; she had quite sufficient reliance on her own tact; and when, going along to the Doctor's cottage, she found Meenie alone in that little room of hers, she explained the whole situation very prettily and simply and naturally. Two girls thrown together in this remote and solitary place, with scarcely any one else to talk with; why should they not know each other? That was the sum and substance of her appeal; with a little touch here and there about her being a stranger, and not sure of the ways and customs of this country that she found herself in. And then Meenie, who was perhaps a trifle overawed at first by this resplendent visitor, was almost inclined to smile at the notion that any apology was necessary, and said in her gentle and quiet way—