"Oh, I think you will. He is your friend. As for me—you see—I—I scarcely know him."
"Oh, Mary!" says the other reproachfully. "You have been meeting him constantly all these two months; you must know him better than any of us. I am sure I wish he was on board now—he could tell us all about the geology of the islands, and what not. It will be delightful to have somebody on board who knows something."
Such is the gratitude of women!—and the Laird had just been describing to her some further points of the famous heresy case.
"And then he knows Gaelic!" says the elder woman. "He will tell us what all the names of the islands mean."
"Oh, yes," says the younger one, "he understands Gaelic very well, though he cannot speak much of it."
"And I think he is very fond of boats," remarks our hostess.
"Oh, exceedingly—exceedingly!" says the other, who, if she does not know Angus Sutherland, seems to have picked up some information about him somehow. "You cannot imagine how he has been looking forward to sailing with you; he has scarcely had any holiday for years."
"Then he must stay longer than ten days," says the elder woman; adding with a smile, "you know, Mary, it is not the number of his patients that will hurry him back to London."
"Oh, but I assure you," says Miss Avon seriously, "that he is not at all anxious to have many patients—as yet! Oh, no!—I never knew any one who was so indifferent about money. I know he would live on bread and water—if that were necessary—to go on with his researches. He told me himself that all the time he was at Leipsic his expenses were never more than 1*l.* a week."
She seemed to know a good deal about the circumstances of this young F.R.S.