Ever since Bruce had offended her, on the occasion
of her first visit, she had taken her custom elsewhere, and had never
even called to see her niece. Annie had met her several times in the
street, and that was all. Hence, on one of the fine afternoons of that
unusually fine summer, and partly, perhaps, from missing the kindness
of Mrs Forbes, Annie took a longing to see her old aunt, and set out
for Clippenstrae to visit her. It was a walk of two miles, chiefly
along the high road, bordered in part by accessible plantation. Through
this she loitered along, enjoying the few wild flowers and the many
lights and shadows, so that it was almost evening before she reached
her destination.
"Preserve 's a'! Annie Anderson, what brings ye here this time o'
nicht?" exclaimed her aunt.
"It's a lang time sin I saw ye, auntie, and I wantit to see ye."
"Weel, come butt the hoose. Ye're growin' a great muckle quean," said
her aunt, inclined to a favourable consideration of her by her growth.
Margaret "didna like bairns--menseless craturs--aye wantin' ither fowk
to do for them!" But growth was a kind of regenerating process in her
eyes, and when a girl began to look like a woman, she regarded it as an
outward sign of conversion, or something equally valuable.
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