"But I must find lodgings--" interrupted Ralph.
"You must find nothing--just bide here. It is the house of your nearest kin, and the fittest place for you. Your meat's neither here nor there, and my lasses--"
"They are the best and kindest in the world," said Ralph.
The professor glanced at him with a sharp, quizzical look under his eyebrows. He seemed as if he were about to say something, and then thought better of it and did not. Perhaps he also had had his illusions.
As Ralph was going to his room that night Kezia met him at the head of the stairs. She came like a flash from nowhere in particular.
"Good-night, Ralph," she said; "give your Winsome a kiss from me-- the new kind--like this!"
Then Kezia vanished, and Ralph was left wondering, with his candle in his hand.