Page:Ralph Connor - The man from Glengarry.djvu/313

  no doubt of that, but that was two years ago, and in Glengarry everything was different! There every one was just as good as another, and these people were all her Aunt Murray's friends. Here the relations were changed. She could not help feeling that however nice he might be, and however much she might like him, Ranald was not of her world.

"Well, tell him so; let him see that," said Kate, with whom Maimie was discussing her difficulty.

"Yes, and then he would fly off and I—we would never see him again," said Maimie. "He's as proud as—any one!"

"Strange, too," said Kate, "when he has no money to speak of!"

"You know I don't mean that, and I don't think it's very nice of you. You have no sympathy with me!"

"In what way?"

"Well, in this very unpleasant affair; every one is talking about Ranald and me, as if I—as if we had some understanding."

"And have you not? I thought—" Kate hesitated to remind Maimie of certain confidences she had received two years ago after her friend had returned from Glengarry.

"Oh, absurd—just a girl and boy affair," said Maimie, impatiently.

"Then there's nothing at all," said Kate, with a suspicion of eagerness in her voice.

"No, of course not—that is, nothing really serious."