Roses white, roses red,
Roses in the lane,
Tell me, roses red and white,
Where is——
And then suddenly something seemed to grip his heart. But the stumble was only for the fiftieth part of a second. He continued:
Where is Jeannie gane?
And so he finished the careless little verses. Nevertheless, Kate Menzies, returning to her seat, had noticed that quick, instinctive pulling of himself up.
'And who's Jeannie when she's at home?' she asked saucily.
'Jeannie?' he said, with apparent indifference. 'Jeannie? There's plenty o' that name about.'
'Ay; and how many o' them are at Inver-Mudal?' she asked, regarding him shrewdly, and with an air which he resented.