diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/66873-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/66873-0.txt | 6630 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6630 deletions
diff --git a/old/66873-0.txt b/old/66873-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5145add..0000000 --- a/old/66873-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6630 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Cameronians, Volume 1 (of 3), by James -Grant - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Cameronians, Volume 1 (of 3) - A Novel - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: December 3, 2021 [eBook #66873] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMERONIANS, VOLUME 1 (OF -3) *** - - - - - - - THE CAMERONIANS. - - A Novel. - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT, - - AUTHOR OF - 'THE ROMANCE OF WAR,' 'OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, ETC. - - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - VOL. I. - - - - LONDON: - RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, - Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. - - 1881. - - [_All Rights Reserved._] - - - - - TO - GEORGE ROUTLEDGE, ESQ., - MY OLD FRIEND AND PUBLISHER, - I INSCRIBE THIS MILITARY STORY, - AS A TRIBUTE - OF - RESPECT AND ESTEEM. - - - - -PREFACE. - -The old Scottish regiment from which the following story takes its -title, and of which the hero is described as a member, is on the -point of losing its identity, and after the July of this year will be -united with the 90th Perthshire Light Infantry, as 'The Scottish -Cameronian Rifles,' thus losing, of course, its scarlet uniform, -colours, and facings--the royal yellow of Scotland, which, by a -correspondence with Mr. Childers, in March last, the author was -fortunate enough to secure (instead of buff) for all Scottish -infantry, not laced with blue. - -Of the merits of the new regimental system it is difficult to -speculate as yet; but it will too probably create an endless -confusion, and be long a source of regret to the entire army. - - 25, TAVISTOCK ROAD, - WESTBOURNE PARK. - May, 1881. - - - - - CONTENTS OF VOL. I. - - CHAPTER - - I. EAGLESCRAIG - II. HEW'S LOVE-MAKING - III. FIRST IMPRESSIONS - IV. COVER-SHOOTING - V. HEW MAKES A VOW - VI. A REVELATION - VII. HEW'S 'MILD PLAY' - VIII. 'THE LOVE THAT TOOK AN EARLY ROOT' - IX. MRS. GARTH ACTS A FRIENDLY PART - X. A CRISIS - XI. HEW MAKES MISCHIEF - XII. CECIL'S DEPARTURE - XIII. IN SHADOW LAND - XIV. LESLIE FOTHERINGHAME - XV. SEPARATED - XVI. ANNABELLE ERROLL - XVII. HOPES AND FEARS - XVIII. THE CAMERONIANS - XIX. THE PROGRESS OF EVENTS - XX. THE OLD STORY AGAIN - - - - -THE CAMERONIANS. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -EAGLESCRAIG. - -'Twenty-sixth Regiment,' said the old general, raising his voice, as -he rustled the morning paper importantly, after taking it from the -ebony reading-easel (attached to the arm of his large and comfortable -velvet easy-chair), whereon Mr. Tunley, the butler, always laid the -journals, after he had duly aired and cut them. 'Twenty-sixth -Regiment,' he added, coughing and clearing his voice, 'a detachment -of this distinguished corps, says the _Ayr Observer_, has recently -arrived at the castle of Dumbarton, under the command of Lieutenants -Cecil Falconer and Leslie Fotheringhame.' - -'Well, there is nothing remarkable in that, uncle,' said one of his -young lady listeners, who seemed chiefly intent upon her breakfast, -and not much interested by the intelligence. - -'My old regiment--my old regiment still,' said the old man, musingly. -'Gad, I'll have the senior--what's his name? Cecil Falconer--over -here, for a few days' cover-shooting.' - -'And why not the other too?' asked the young lady who had just -spoken, laughingly; 'we might have an admirer each, Annabelle.' - -But Miss Erroll, to whom the name of Fotheringhame seemed not -unknown, coloured and did not reply. - -'Both could not leave their men at the same time,' said the general. - -'Then I hope the senior is a pleasant fellow--he whom you propose to -bring, Sir Piers,' said Mr. Hew Montgomerie, of whom more anon. - -'All the Cameronians were pleasant fellows in my time,' said the -general, tartly, 'and I have no doubt they are so still. And -remember, girls, that the smartest officers are usually selected for -detachment duty,' he added. - -Those remarks passed in the cosy and elegant morning-room of -Eaglescraig, the mansion of Sir Piers Montgomerie, Bart., who--a -retired general officer--was G.C.B. and G.C.S.I. and Colonel of the -Cameronian Regiment, and Governor of the Castle of Dumbarton: and the -party at breakfast consisted only of Sir Piers, his remote kinsman -and heir, Hew Montgomerie, of the Indian Civil Service, home on a -year's leave; his grandniece and orphan ward Mary, also a -Montgomerie; her friend Annabelle Erroll--both very handsome -girls--and an old lady who presided over the silver tea-urn and -Wedgewood breakfast equipage, Mrs. Garth, Mary's governess and -friend, the widow of an old captain of the Cameronians--five -personages, with whom we hope to make the reader fully acquainted in -time. - -Sir Piers was verging now on his seventieth year, but he was fresher -and more hale and hearty than many a man of fifty. His features were -still handsome and regular, though lined and wrinkled; his eyes were -keen as those of a hawk, and his figure, still wonderfully erect, was -clad in a rich maroon-coloured robe-de-chambre, with yellow silk -facings, cord, and tassels, and he was seated near the blazing winter -fire, with his feet on a velvet stool, and encased in slippers of -Mary's handiwork. - -Generous by nature, yet hot-tempered and proud---pride of birth had -been a positive vice with him in early life--Sir Piers was a curious -mixture of the testy old Indian general, accustomed to every luxury, -including tyrannising over 'niggers,' with the country gentleman of -the old school; and having a profound admiration for the service and -everything pertaining thereto, like old Bismarck, he believed that -every man should be a soldier and rejoice in being one. - -In his latter years Sir Piers had not been with the Cameronians, but -had seen a deal of service in India as a general officer, and, while -slowly creeping up the list of his rank, had been appointed, in the -usual courtesy of the army, full colonel of the old regiment in which -he had been a subaltern and field-officer. - -His hunting-days were well-nigh past now; yet, at a meet, all the -field rejoiced to see the fine old man in his saddle, and with all -his pride of bearing--for a wealthy parvenu, however honestly he had -won his wealth, Sir Piers would have treated with chilling -hauteur--he was never above conversing with some sturdy farmer of -Kyle or Cunninghame, kindly and affably, on the price of stock, the -fall of wheat, on breeding, fattening, or draining, and always -winding up by some, often irrelevant, anecdote of his sporting -experiences in India, or when he followed the drums of the -Cameronians. Old as he was, he had never been known to shrink from a -bullfinch, or be fished out of a brook; he was welcome in every -homestead throughout the country-side, and the farmers' wives always -assumed their brightest looks, brought forth their whitest -tablecloths and the best contents of larder and pantry, in honour of -the old Laird of Eaglescraig, when he came their way. - -He was a Justice of the Peace and Commissioner of Supply for the -County; he read the _Field_, of course, as what country gentleman -does not? He studied the War Office _Gazette_ regularly, as if he -expected his own name to appear there, once weekly; he was simple in -all his tastes and happy in all his surroundings, yet, for all that, -there was a skeleton in his house and heart, known, perhaps, to -himself alone. - -He was a childless man now--childless by an act of his own--and the -title and estates, which he inherited from a long line of ancestors, -were eventually to pass from him to the heir of entail, whom he -strove hard, but in vain, to like or admire. - -The latter, Hew Caddish Montgomerie, was then about thirty years of -age. He was not ungentlemanly either in manner or bearing; but his -face, like his disposition, was very defective. His eyes were called -grey, and seemed to be grey at times; yet, on closer inspection, it -was but too apparent that those shifty and furtive orbs of his were -of different colours, for one was a species of bilious green. - -They were closely set on each side of a nose that strongly resembled -a shoe-horn, and his mouth, which was both cruel and licentious in -contour, was partly concealed, or altered in expression, by a -luxuriant brown moustache. He had come home, we have said, on leave -from the C.S., a sharp hand at cards and with a billiard-cue, deeply -dipped in debt, and with the current reputation, among his set, of -being 'a bad lot.' His mother, daughter of a Sudder judge, was one -of the old English family of Caddish, a name which Hew was wont to -affirm was a corruption of Cavendish; be that as it may, the -corruption thereof, in some instances, suited his character amazingly -well. - -'This is rather unlike your usual proud exclusiveness, Sir Piers,' -said he, after a pause. - -'What? inviting this young officer to knock over a few birds?' - -'Yes--without an introduction.' - -'Introduction? None was needed in my time; the epaulettes were -introduction enough everywhere. The service is certainly _not_ what -it was in my day, the special school of honour and politeness; but -I'll do the right thing, for all that. Let me see, which is -senior--Falconer or Fotheringhame. Tunley, hand me the "Army List." -Thanks. It _is_ Falconer. I have known what it is to be on -detachment in such a dull hole as Dumbarton, killing time till the -spring drills come on, so I'll invite the senior.' - -'And how about the poor junior?' asked Miss Erroll, colouring -slightly again. - -'Well, even to gratify you, Annabelle, I cannot bring him,' said the -general, laughing. 'I remember once, when we were in cantonments at -Barrackpore----' Hew smiled as the general began thus; but they were -spared the probably prosy reminiscence, for just then Sir Piers' -faded features clouded suddenly, as he put down the 'Army List' and -said, in a changed voice: 'Had my boy Piers lived, he might now have -been at the head of the regiment--five-and-twenty years -ago--five-and-twenty years! My God, how long--how time has rolled -away!' - -His eyes, as he thought this, rather than spoke it all aloud, were -cast for a moment furtively--as if he was ashamed of exhibiting any -sudden emotion--on the full-length portrait of a handsome young -subaltern, in the uniform of the Cameronians, scarlet faced with -yellow, massive gold epaulettes, and the silver sphinx on his -belt-plate. It represented a spirited-looking young fellow with a -proud and joyous expression of face, and a well-knit, well-set-up -figure. - -The shifty, parti-coloured eyes of Hew Montgomerie travelled for a -moment in the same direction, and then he addressed himself to the -grouse-pie, thinking the while that 'things were deucedly well -ordered as they were, so far as he was concerned.' And then the meal -proceeded somewhat silently, Mrs. Garth officiating over the cups, -and Mr. Tunley, a paragon of old rubicund butlers, at the side-board, -where the cold beef and grouse-pie were placed, among Indian jars and -old silver race tankards. - -Mary Montgomerie, the general's grand-niece and ward, and her chief -friend and gossip, Annabelle Enroll, were both attractive and very -handsome girls, each in her twentieth year, but different in their -styles and complexions. - -Of a good stature, and round, firm and graceful in form, Mary -Montgomerie had well-defined eyebrows, eyes, and hair, all of the -darkest brown; long lashes lent a great softness to her white-lidded -eyes, and she had a quiet ease, elegance, and girlish innocence of -manner; yet at times she was full of vivacity, born of the fact or -knowledge that she had been, as an orphan, from her youth, much of a -petted child, and reminded by many around her that she was the -heiress of many a thousand and many an acre, provided that she wedded -with the full approval of one who was not likely to be severe upon -her--old Sir Piers, her grand-uncle and legal guardian; for she was -the only daughter of his favourite younger brother--younger by -several years. - -As such she filled a void in his heart, and ever and anon the old -man's eyes were wont to rest kindly, fondly, and admiringly upon her. - -Her complexion was fair and creamy, her features regular and minute, -yet they were hardly ever in repose, for every variety of expression, -as thought inspired it, flitted over the ever-changing face. - -Though less favoured by fortune, and even by nature, her friend Miss -Erroll was nevertheless a charming girl of the blonde type, with -grey-blue eyes and fair hair shot with gold, as it seemed, in the -sunlight, soft, plentiful, and wavy as the darker tresses of Mary, -and her eyebrows and their lashes were just a shade darker than her -hair. In the tone and tenour of her ways she was less impulsive than -Mary Montgomerie, who at times would come down the house stairs at a -headlong rush, while Annabelle followed with calm step and slow, or -would quietly seek a gate in the hunting-field, while Mary, with her -horse's head uplifted by her light, unerring hand, cleared the -nearest hedge at a flying leap, and with a laugh that rang like a -merry silver bell. - -Both girls were eminently graceful and full of charming manners and -pretty winning words and ways; but the difference of their -temperaments was indicated even by the style of their -morning-dresses, for the robe of Annabelle was pale blue, as became -the character of her beauty, while that of Mary was of warm maize -colour, tied with fluttering scarlet ribbons, with rosettes of the -same to match on her tiny slippers. The loose, wide, falling sleeves -of this garment coquettishly showed her round white arm at times, -from the taper wrist to the dimpled elbow, and then she would smile -and hastily let them fall forward when she caught the quick, shifty -eyes of Hew Montgomerie cast admiringly on her. - -The fifth of our _dramatis personæ_, as yet, is Mrs. Griselda Garth, -or, as she preferred to be called with the old Scoto-French courtesy, -that is now passing away, 'Mrs. Captain Garth.' The widow of a -Cameronian officer who had died on service in the East, a calm, -subdued, and gentle, white-haired old lady, she had found now, for -life, a quiet home at Eaglescraig, and had acted for more than twelve -years as a species of tender mother to Mary; and thus, after her -duties as a governess were past, she remained as her mentor, -companion, and chaperon, honoured, loved, and trusted by Mary and old -Sir Piers, who had been her husband's friend. - -'If Mr. Falconer avails himself of my invitation, and I don't see -very well how he can decline it,' said the latter, returning to his -late idea, and viewing it somewhat in the light of a regimental -order, 'the dog-cart can meet him at the Montgomerie Arms in -Ardrossan; and you, Hew, will do me the favour to drive him here to -Eaglescraig.' - -'Yes; that will be in better taste than sending a servant,' added -Mary. - -'Excuse me, Sir Piers,' said Hew, almost sulkily, as his chronic -jealousy already took the alarm; 'but I don't care for acting as -charioteer to a total stranger.' - -'As you please,' replied Sir Piers haughtily, as he always disliked -to have his wishes thwarted; 'some one else will obey my orders, I -have no doubt.' - -Eaglescraig, in the Bailiwick of Cunninghame, we may describe as a -magnificent modern villa, with plate-glass oriels, a pillared -portico, a stately perron, and balustraded terrace, whereon the -peacocks spread their plumes and strutted to and fro. It had been, -somewhat incongruously we must admit, added to, or engrafted on, the -tall, old, square baronial tower that for ages had been, from the -lofty bluff known as the Eaglescraig, a landmark of the sea, and -which started up gaunt and grim, with grated windows, corbelled -battlements, and tourelles at the angles--a tower the pride of the -general's heart as the cradle of his house, and the home of his -ancestors, all unsuited though it was to modern usages, taste, and -requirements--an edifice so massive and old, that Hardy Knute, when -he dwelt in the adjacent castle of Glengarnock, may have shared in it -the hospitality of that Sir Hew Montgomerie who fought at the battle -of Largs, and whose coat-of-arms, three _fleurs-de-lis_, with three -annulets quarterly, crested by a maiden holding a man's head, may -still be seen above its northern door; and these Sir Piers had now -reproduced upon everything else, from the carriage panels to the -dogs' collars and the salt-spoons. - -On one side the house of Eaglescraig commanded a view which, on a -summer day, was a delightful one, when there was just breeze enough -to swell the passing sails--the glorious Firth of Clyde, with the -dark-blue peaks of Arran in the distance, widening out into the -ocean, with ships homeward bound after many a tedious, rough, or -prosperous voyage; others with their prows turned towards the far -horizon, bearing with them, perhaps, expatriated Highland emigrants, -their hearts filled with sorrow and regret, rather than with the -thoughts of 'high emprise,' so necessary for an exile's success in -the doubtful future. - -Close in shore, below the beetling cliff, when the wind is from the -land, may be seen the many coasting vessels and steamers plying to -and fro, shooting clear, as if by magic, from many a rocky promontory -and bluff, where, thick as gnats, the sea-birds wheel and scream; and -in many a sheltered cove the boats, brown-tarred and clinker-built, -moored or safely beached, for the people there are all hardy and -thrifty fisher-folk. - -But on the landward side the view was different, and there the eye -could wander over the tolerably flat and very fertile acres of Sir -Piers Montgomerie, wood, wold and pasture, the richest part, perhaps, -of the rich dairy-farm producing land in a district of which, as the -old rhyme says: - - 'Kyle for a man, - And Carrick for a coo; - _Cunninghame_ for butter and cheese, - And Galloway for woo'.' - - -So the general's invitation to Lieutenant Cecil Falconer was written -by Mary and despatched, to the great annoyance of Hew, and all in -Eaglescraig knew that in another day or two the recipient thereof, -who had accepted it, was coming. - -Mary Montgomerie and her friend Annabelle Erroll were too much -accustomed to society, and the gaiety of fashionable life, to feel -even any girlish excitement at the prospect of a young sub being -added to their present small circle at Eaglescraig; nevertheless, in -the seclusion of their dressing-closet, it was voted and passed by -them, _nem. con._, that the said addition would not be unacceptable; -and, on lot being laughingly cast as to whom he should fall a victim, -the prize was Mary's. - -And after this they ceased to think upon the subject--certainly, at -least, so far as the latter lady was concerned. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -HEW'S LOVE-MAKING. - -During the few days that passed before the arrival of the expected -guest at Eaglescraig, Hew was more than usually attentive to the -general's wealthy ward; and one forenoon when they were idling in the -long avenue, which led through the Dovecot Park down the woodland -slope towards the highway, he resolved, if possible, to bring matters -to a successful issue with her. - -For fully a month past, since his appearance at Eaglescraig, Mary had -been used to this love-making of his, apparently, as she treated him -half coquettishly, and yet so 'chaffingly,' that--but for his extreme -vanity, or obtuseness--he must have seen that he had no chance of -success. - -Mary valued his attentions at their real worth, and times there were -when he eyed her gloomily--yea, angrily, for he trusted more in Sir -Piers' influence, wishes, and authority, to bend her to his will, -than to any merit of his own. - -Thus his love-making was a curious combination of earnestness, -banter, and sullenness; earnestness caused by the girl's great -beauty, which he certainly valued, and her great wealth, which he -valued much more, on one hand; and on the other, genuine dislike of -India, with his own impecunious circumstances, and a knowledge of Sir -Piers' wishes. The banter came at times, because he was really -incapable of loving any girl truly; and the sullenness was born of -his lack of success, with a chronic jealousy of every other man who -addressed her. - -On this forenoon in the Dovecot Park, Annabelle Erroll did not -accompany them, so Hew proceeded to utilise the occasion. - -Mary looked bewitchingly beautiful and piquante in her rich brown -sealskin, a grey skirt and a coquettish black velvet hat with a -scarlet feather. She kept her hands obstinately in her tiny muff; -thus Hew had no pretence for capturing one of them in any way as a -suggestive preliminary to something more, and could only walk by her -side and utter his soft nothings from time to time, to which she -listened, half amused and half bored the while, and not helping him -in any way. - -The winter day was clear and bright, and the keen gusty breeze that -swept from the sea over Eaglescraig imparted a rosebud tint to Mary's -usually pale cheeks that enhanced her beauty by adding a fresh light -to her eyes. The gusts of wind whirled showers of yellow and brown -leaves across the sward, and drifts of stormy clouds through the sky -over land and Firth, yet Mary's spirits were a high pressure, and -though but little sunshine lit the December landscape, she was full -of merriment and the _espièglerie_ that were natural to her. - -The dovecot they were approaching, like most of the ancient edifices -of that kind in Scotland, was built in the form of an enormous -beehive, some twenty feet high, and full of columbaria for the -pigeons, which were flying in clouds around it, or perched on the -summit thereof. It was, in due conformity to an ancient act of the -Scottish Parliament, placed in the very centre of the Montgomerie -estate, so that the birds should not prey upon the corn of other -proprietors; and the reason why so many of these antique dovecots in -Scotland survive the mansions to which they belonged, is supposed to -be an old superstition, that if the dovecot is destroyed, the lady of -the land dies within the year. - -Near that of Eaglescraig are two large yellow rings or circles -strongly marked in the green-sward (like those on the hill of -Craiganrarie), drawn by the sword of an evil Montgomerie, who had -trafficked in Satanic influence, and thus had formed round him an -orbit of protection, before summoning his sable majesty, and round -which the latter had to keep running, so long as he was visible to -mortal eyes. - -'You do worry me, Hew,' said Mary, with something of a saucy laugh, -'and I have every mind to stand in the conjuror's circle and defy you -to approach me.' - -'Do you deem me, then, so distasteful, so odious, and such an -incarnation of evil?' - -'No; but seriously, what is the aim, the object of all this -attention, Cousin Hew? for though the tie is a remote one certainly, -I may call you cousin, I believe.' - -'Do, dearest Mary.' - -'Well?' she asked, curtly and impatiently. - -'The aim and object, you say?' - -'Yes, yes.' - -'To marry you, of course; that is--that is, if you will have me, and -please Sir Piers,' he replied, with perfect deliberation and more -apparent coolness than he usually felt. - -'I won't consult grand-uncle on _that_ matter, Cousin Hew. Besides, -now that I think of it, I don't want to marry.' - -'Indeed! I thought marriage was the sole aim of every girl's -existence.' - -'In novels more than in real life, perhaps. Besides, marriage is -only to be thought of when the man and the hour come.' - -'It is the end of all anxieties,' urged Hew, who thought no doubt of -his monetary ones. - -'I have none to end; and with many girls it is only the beginning of -a set of troubles which none of them expect. But let us drop this -very funny conversation.' - -'Why?' - -'You surely would not seek a wife with half a heart, or none!' - -'The half of your heart, Mary, is worth the whole of any other -woman's!' replied Hew, with more warmth and gallantry than he had yet -shown; but the provoking Mary only laughed, and as she drew near the -dovecot, some of the pigeons, to whom her figure was familiar, and -whom she was wont to bring food for, came wheeling and fluttering -round her, and one, after nestling in her neck--a pretty -sight--alighted on her left hand, and while she stroked and fed it -with the right, Hew could not but remark that the snow-white pigeon -was not whiter than her slender fingers. - -'I would I were that pigeon,' said he, sentimentally. - -'"Would I were a glove upon that hand!"--now don't be a goose and -attempt to act Romeo, as I cannot be your Juliet,' said Mary, -laughing outright; and now he began to eye her with his gloomiest -expression in his parti-coloured orbs, while she caressed the bird, -and sang, as if to it, part of Lady Anne Lindsay's song: - - '"Why tarries my love? Ah, where does he roam? - My love is long absent from me. - Come hither, sweet dove, I'll write to my love, - And send him a letter by thee. - - '"Her dove she did deck, she drew o'er his neck - A bell and a collar so gay; - She tied to his wing a scroll with a string, - Then kissed him and sent him away."' - - -Suiting the action to the word, she kissed the pigeon and tossed it -from her with a merry ringing laugh, for she had ever a light glad -heart, and was full of pretty, yet haughty and winsome ways. - -Hew, in the vanity of his nature, could not see how hopeless it was -for him to press his suit with a girl who never listened to him -seriously, and who never tried, even in the least degree, to care for -him; for there was something in Hew Caddish Montgomerie that made -Mary totally indifferent to all he could urge, and so she felt -neither regret for, nor gratitude to him: thus she could hear unmoved -the avowal and proposal from his lips, which seldom fail to stir in -one way or another the hearts of most women, and which, whoever -utters them, are seldom or never forgotten. - -'Let us be friends, Hew,' said she, in reply to another appeal; 'I do -not love you--I cannot love you as you wish, and I dare not and would -not marry where I did not love.' - -Hew eyed her still more gloomily and almost revengefully, while she -played with the spray of a wild-rose tree, till a little cry escaped -her, as a thorn entered her delicate hand. - -'Do permit me, Mary,' he urged, and tenderly enough he extracted the -thorn, and bowing over her hand, pressed it to his lips; but Mary -almost angrily snatched it away, just as the sound of wheels was -heard, and there bowled up the winding avenue a dog-cart, the driver -and the occupant of which must have seen, and no doubt misunderstood, -the whole situation. - -'Our new guest with his gun-case and portmanteaus,' said Hew, with -much annoyance. - -'Who?' asked Mary, still more annoyed, as she thought of what Hew had -done. - -'Have you forgotten?' - -'Oh! you mean Mr. Cecil Falconer.' - -'Yes, that fellow from Dumbarton. Now don't, please, run off to the -house, Mary; we shall meet him and his military appetite betimes, no -doubt, when the gong sounds for dinner.' - -Mary had now an undefined sense of provocation, and in silence turned -away towards the house, accompanied by Hew, who found his chance was -gone for that day, and Mary never gave him another if it could be -avoided. - -Thus ere long he began to fear that until Sir Piers' demise, and the -baronetcy and broad acres of Eaglescraig became his by succession, he -might have to face the Indian C.S. again; and seek how to meet his -debts by trying--as he had often done--his fortune at 'the board of -green cloth.' - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -FIRST IMPRESSIONS. - -The sense of having borne a part in a scene--an event which is -dreaded by well-bred folks--prevented Mary from making her appearance -till dinner-time, when, after achieving a most effective toilette, -she entered the lighted drawing-room. - -Though almost totally unembarrassed by any memory of Hew's absurd -love-making, she had nevertheless been provoked that the new guest -should have been cognisant of his gallantry in the avenue. She could -but hope that he had forgotten it, which was certainly not the case, -and ere she had left her dressing-closet, she paused before the -pier-glass to peep at her own sweet face and all her bravery, ere she -swept away down the great staircase to the drawing-room, where -already the general and their visitor were on the best of terms, -laughing and, as Mrs. Garth phrased it, 'talking shop in full swing.' - -'Yes, yes,' she heard Sir Piers saying, 'it was there at the storming -of that hill-fort that the notable dispute took place between Douglas -of "Ours" and Bruce of the Bengal Infantry, as to which was senior -and who should lead the stormers; till Douglas, when the bullets, -egad! were flying like hail down the breach, lowered his sword and -said, "When a Bruce is to lead, a Douglas may be proud to follow; -lead on, and I shall follow you!" He was shot down a minute after, -and the next who was knocked over was your good-man, Mrs. Garth--poor -John! Ah! my niece,' he interrupted himself, on seeing the suddenly -arrested gaze of their guest. 'Mr. Falconer of "Ours," Mary--Miss -Montgomerie.' - -Mary gave him her hand and a smile of welcome, and was at once put at -her ease, as Sir Piers resumed his anecdote, to which, though she had -heard it a hundred times before, Mrs. Garth listened with rapt -attention, as became an 'old campaigner,' while Annabelle Erroll, who -seemed already to have discovered that she and Mr. Falconer had some -friend or friends in common, was conversing away with more than her -usual fluency and animation. - -'Is she already smitten by our new sub?' thought Mary. - -Falconer had certainly a striking face and striking figure, and both -were well calculated to please a woman's eye. In plain but accurate -evening costume, the funereal costume of festive civilisation, he -seemed every inch a gentleman and a handsome fellow; calm, -self-possessed, and in about his twenty-fifth year; soldier-like, -perfectly well-bred, as it eventually proved, was well-read and a -skilful musician. - -His nose was somewhat aquiline; his eyes and close-shaven hair were, -like Mary's, of the darkest brown, and his moustaches, as Annabelle -afterwards whispered to her, were 'the perfection' of such -appendages. He had a placid and perfectly assured manner, very -different from Hew's alternate restlessness and _insouciance_; yet -his eyes bespoke a latent fire of character and a spirit that was -full of courage and energy; and now Hew, who had been preparing for -the coming meal by having either sherry and bitters, or a hideous -compound called a 'cocktail,' which he had taught the butler, Tunley, -to make up, came lounging in, with scrutiny and gloom in his eyes, to -complete the little circle grouped near the fire. - -By nature suspicious and envious, he barely accorded their visitor a -touch of his hand, and from that moment these two young men -felt--they knew not why--an instinctive dislike of each other. - -The dinner-gong cut short another anecdote of the general's, and -recalled his thoughts from pig-sticking and Central India; he gave, -with courtly old-fashioned politeness, his arm to Mrs. Garth; Mary -took that of Cecil Falconer, and smiling Annabelle Erroll fell to the -lot of the amiable Hew, while Mr. Tunley and the servants drew up -rank entire in the vestibule; then, of course, the meal that followed -was like any other in such an establishment, perfect, from the soup -and dry sherry to the coffee and Maraschino. - -'Tunley,' said Sir Piers, 'fill Mr. Falconer's glass. Glad to -welcome you to Eaglescraig,' he added, bowing over a brimming glass -of sherry; 'glad, indeed, to welcome one of my old Cameronians. I -hope that, like me, you are proud of the old corps?' - -'I am indeed, Sir Piers!' responded the young fellow with a kindling -eye, that doubtless, like his heart, brightened under the genial and -charming influences of his surroundings. 'I share, sir, to the full, -the opinion of someone who says that no soldier is worth his salt -unless he feels that he is as good as any man about him, and twice as -good as any opposed to him.' - -'Bravo, Falconer I you are one after my own heart! Gad, but he is a -fine fellow,' he added in a low voice to Mrs. Garth; 'reminds me -powerfully of some one I knew, long ago. _Who_ the deuce can it be?' - -In the extremity of his kindness at that moment, he actually thought -him like his dead son, so the old man's whole heart went out to the -new-comer, in whose favour this fanciful idea operated powerfully. -'His father and mother have long been dead, I understand, and he -joined the Cameronians fresh from school--a mere boy, as I did -myself.' - -He looked almost tenderly on the young man, who was quite unconscious -that he was an object of any particular interest; and his eyes -kindled, but a sigh escaped as he recalled his own hot youth, and - - 'Thought of the days that were long since gone by, - When his limbs were strong and his courage was high,' - -and ere his once firm and stately stride had given place to what he -called 'a species of half-pay shamble.' - -'By the way, Falconer,' said Sir Piers, whose pet weakness was -pedigree, 'there was an old family of your name, who had an estate in -this Bailiwick of Cunninghame--perhaps you are a branch of it?' - -The young man coloured rather perceptibly (as Hew was not slow to -perceive and make a note of), and said with a smile: - -'I was educated out of Scotland; my father died in my youth, and my -mother set no store on such fortuitous things as name or pedigree.' - -'A sad mistake,' said Sir Piers, shaking his white head. 'The -Falconers I speak of were a branch of the Falconers, lords of -Halkertoun, who took their name from their office, being falconers to -our kings of old, as we learn from Douglas--aye, so far back as the -twelfth century.' - -'I know not, general, of what Falconers I come,' replied the young -officer a little curtly; then he added, with a smile: 'I only know -that I was not born with the proverbial silver spoon, but with a -wooden one, of the largest size.' - -Sir Piers felt intuitively that he had touched a delicate subject, -and changed it at once, though for a Scotsman not to know what kith -or kin he came of seemed certainly incomprehensible; but Hew, aware -of the vast value he attached to the most fortuitous circumstances of -birth, family, and position, thought: - -'No pedigree! By Jove! our Cameronian will find but small favour -here now.' - -'Tunley has got some magnificent Marcobruner and Lafitte in the -cellar, Falconer,' said Sir Piers; 'I must have your opinion--but if -I only look at them, I should have a twinge of my old enemy the gout.' - -Falconer bowed his thanks, and was turning again to address Mary, -when Sir Piers took his attention by plunging once more into Central -India, and a stream of anecdotes about 'what the service and the -regiment were in _my_ time,' till the ladies withdrew, and, to Hew's -disgust, there followed, of course, a professional conversation, on -which he was totally unable to enter; thus he could only sip his -wine, toy with the grape-scissors, or crack an occasional nut, while -hearing Sir Piers laughing at jokes that seemed destitute of all fun -to him, and all matters of 'shop' were discussed with the keenest -relish--the new head-dress for the Line, the new pattern musket, and -endless anecdotes of the mess-room and parade, to all of which Hew, -not unnaturally, perhaps, listened with ill-disguised impatience; and -even when the conversation halted irregularly between music and -literature, or art and politics, home and foreign, he could not enter -thereon, as Hew abhorred all books save a betting one, and read no -journal save the _Sporting Times_. - -Cecil Falconer rose to rejoin the ladies, but the general was in no -mood to spare him, and insisted again and again on one more glass of -dry sherry, 'just as a white-washer;' and of course that, 'by the -way,' reminded him of 'how we used to be annoyed at Agra by the -musk-rats running over the wine-bottles, and communicating a -confounded flavour of musk to the sherry, which is no improvement to -the wine, I can tell you; and it is a curious fact that every English -resident in India tastes musk in his wine at some time or other, -though there are some who assert it is a mere superstition. When we -were at Agra and elsewhere up country, we had deuced little money -among us in the Cameronians, yet somehow we always spent a devil of a -lot of it; for every fellow drew a bill on every other fellow, so -there was a regular crossfire of blue paper from right to left.' - -To these and other reminiscences Falconer listened with his mind full -of the bright smile accorded to him by Mary Montgomerie, when he had -adroitly anticipated Hew in opening the door when the ladies departed -to the drawing-room, whither he longed to follow them, and from -whence the notes of the piano seemed to come as an invitation to do -so, but he was compelled to endure anecdotes about India _ad nauseam_. - -'By Jove, Sir Piers,' said Hew, wearily, 'I detest India; I've had -enough of it!' - -'I don't mean you to have any more of it, Hew, and you know that -well,' replied Sir Piers kindly, his heart mellowed with wine; 'but -you are mistaken in your views of it. "India," says a writer, -correctly, I think, "is quite a misrepresented country, and has -nothing objectionable in it, but a tiger or two, and a little heat in -the warm part of the day." - -The night was considerably advanced when they joined the ladies. -Mrs. Garth had already retired; and the jolly old general, who had -fully partaken of more wine than he usually did, stood in -orderly-room fashion, with his feet apart on the rich hearthrug and -his back to the fire, winking, blinking, smiling blandly, and not -sure whether he was expected to take the field at the head of the -Cameronians to-morrow; while at the piano there was performed a -little brilliant singing, which Hew, with growing irritation, -secretly stigmatised as 'the most duffing caterwauling!' and sat -apart sulking (wine had usually this effect upon him), and leaving to -Falconer the inevitable and pleasant task of turning the music -leaves, and his eyes watched alternately the handsome and well-formed -young fellow, who bent with ease and confidence admiringly over the -singers, who, with voices sweetly attuned, were performing a duet, -and the forms of the latter, so different in the character of their -beauty--Mary with her hair of rich dark brown, and Annabelle, the -blonde, with her sunny coils, that shone with a remarkable sheen in -the flood of radiance that fell from the chandelier. - -But the night waned apace, and at last it was necessary to separate, -if any justice was to be done to the cover shooting on the morrow, -now close at hand. - -Hew gave Falconer his hand, which to the latter seemed clammy and -quite like the tail of a fish; but the general insisted on escorting -him to his 'quarters,' as he said, and conducted him, candle in hand, -along one or two stately corridors adorned with fine paintings--two, -that were of Cardinal York and King James VIII., evinced the Jacobite -proclivities of Sir Piers' ancestors--and there, too, were trophies -of the chase, both European and Asiatic. Never had Hew or the girls -known the usually grave and rather stately old baronet 'in such a -merry pin' (Hew suggested 'so screwed'); but as he threaded the -corridors he was heard to sing a scrap of an old Anglo-Indian ditty: - - 'Good-bye to the _batta_!--to lighten - The pangs of each blooming cadet; - And the brows of the captains to brighten, - They've doubled the one epaulette; - They've added some lace to our jackets, - Augmented the price of our caps, - In the hope that the half-batta rackets - Will merge in the glare of our "traps." - Just as any new plaything bewitches - The sulks out of little boys whipped; - And before they've well pulled up their breeches, - They wholly forget they've been stripped.' - - -'Ah, yes, Falconer, my lad, that song was known long before your day, -when the beggars cut down the _batta_. But here you are--no, here; -this is the door. Good-night; hope you'll sleep sound. No need for -a chowree to whisk inside the curtains here, as in India, and after -making them safe all round the mattress, spring in through the hole -you leave (like Harlequin through his hoop), lest a cloud of -mosquitoes follow. I remember, at Dumdum--no, at Dinapore, my son -Piers and Ballachulish of the Cameronians----' Then his voice broke -as he spoke of his son, and he added: 'But I'll tell you about it -to-morrow. Breakfast at nine, and then--hey for the covers!' - -And now Sir Piers, whose voice had become certainly somewhat -'feathery,' betook him to his own room, pausing on the way more than -once, candle in hand, as his aristocratic ideas of family, and that -pride of birth which had been his ruling passion and sin in early -life, occurred to him, and he muttered, pausing in his progress to -bed, and shaking his white head: - -'Doesn't know what Falconers he's of--a strange thing--a pity. My -boy Piers forgot, too, what Montgomeries he was of, once on a time. -A fine fellow, though!' - -As for the latter, he was simply enchanted with Eaglescraig and all -the details thereof: the beauty of the two girls, each so different -in its character, and the _savoir vivre_ of the old general. As for -Hew, he forgot all about him. - -Meanwhile, a few rooms distant, the lady's-maid was sleepily combing -out the dark and luxuriant tresses of Mary Montgomerie, and the light -of a shaded lamp fell softly and tenderly upon the graceful figures -of herself and Annabelle, seated in their _robes de chambre_ -(chatting as young girls will always do when preparing for rest), on -the looped-up lace curtains of their pretty beds, knotted one with -blue and the other with rose-coloured ribbons; on the toilet-tables, -with their glittering trinkets, and crystal bottles with gold or -silver stoppers; on vases of conservatory flowers, and all the pretty -luxuries which are usually to be found in the vicinity of youth, -wealth, and beauty, as each girl sat smilingly contemplating herself -in a long looking-glass, with all her rippling hair floating down -over her white shoulders. - -'And you like him?' said Mary, after the maid had withdrawn. - -'Oh, so much!' exclaimed Annabelle; 'he is quite a dear fellow.' - -'He has a gentle voice and gentle eyes, certainly,' said Mary, -musingly. - -'And to me looks somehow like one who has a history beyond that of -other young men.' - -'A history--what a funny idea! Of course he'll have a history, -which, perhaps, like other young subs, he would rather not have made -patent to everyone. But you and he seemed to have some little -interest in common, Annabelle?' - -'Had we?' said the latter, colouring a little. - -'He spoke to you often of his friend, the other sub--what is his -name?' - -'Leslie Fotheringhame,' replied Annabelle in a low voice. - -'Do you wish Sir Piers had invited him?' - -'Perhaps, Mary,' said Annabelle, with a little forced laugh. 'Yet -better not, better not,' she thought, with a memory of the days when -her hand had thrilled at the touch of Leslie's, even before words of -love had been spoken, and there had only been in her ear those broken -utterances which a woman seldom, perhaps never, forgets. - -So, save in the instance of Hew, all their first impressions of each -other were favourable, and the young girls, as each laid her head on -her pillow, began already to scheme out pleasant little visions, they -scarcely knew of what. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -COVER SHOOTING. - -Jovial and laughing was the party which assembled at breakfast next -day, in the bright morning-room of Eaglescraig, though the December -landscape looked bleak enough without. - -Mary, in all the freshness of her morning beauty, presided at one end -of the loaded table, and Mrs. Garth at the other. Sir Piers was -still in his room; but there was Cecil Falconer, in a shooting-suit -of the best taste, and having of course innumerable pockets; Hew in -rather 'loud'-patterned knickerbockers; a couple of jolly, red-faced -country gentlemen, the village doctor, and old Mr. John Balderstone -(of whom much more anon), the trusted land agent and local factor of -Sir Piers, and deemed one of the best shots in the Bailiwick of -Cunninghame, a hale, hearty, ruddy-faced man, with an ample paunch -and short sturdy legs encased in long brown gaiters. - -'How is Sir Piers this morning, Mr. Hew?' he asked that personage, -who was intent on a pile of grouse pie, for the breakfast was a -genuine Scottish one, a veritable dinner, with the addition of tea -and coffee pots covered with elaborate cosies of Mary's handiwork. -'Well, I hope, and that he goes to shoot with us?' - -'Well?--I should think so; hearty and lively,' replied Hew, with his -mouth full; 'by Jove, he looks as if he was likely to live for ever! -He's got the receipt for old Parr's life pills, and the secret of -Methuselah too,' was the ungenerous--even coarse--response of Hew, -half spoken to himself, and speaking volumes as to his secret -thoughts; a response which made worthy old John Balderstone first -raise and then knit his shaggy grey eyebrows; 'but here he comes, to -answer for himself.' - -Laughing and smiling, he greeted all in rapid succession, Cecil -Falconer perhaps first of all, and then he kissed Mary; and anyone -who saw how old Sir Piers held her hand and gazed into her tender -hazel eyes, might have seen and known that she was the one hope of -his now childless old age, and I doubt if he would have dined or -breakfasted comfortably without her. - -He bowed over the hand of Annabelle Erroll, with something of -stately, old-fashioned courtesy; he patted Hew on the head as if he -had been a boy, and then took a place beside him, after a glance at -the weather without, with reference to the shooting. He wore a suit -of rough grey tweed, with strong shoes and long brown leather -leggings, that had seen service many a time and oft among the beans -and turnip-fields all round Eaglescraig; and yet in this--the -plainest of all costumes--he looked every inch what he was, a -grand-looking and aristocratic old gentleman. - -Shooting anecdotes, the qualities of certain dogs, guns, cartridges, -new shot-belts, and so forth, were being discussed on all sides, -together with eggs, ham, cold pie and steaming coffee; amid all of -which Cecil Falconer strove in vain, even by the offer of a -chicken-bone, to win the favour of Mary's pet terrier Snarley, which -he was disposed for her sake to view and approach tenderly; but in -return her favourite showed a whole set of sharp white teeth, and -retreating under his mistress's chair, snarled and repelled the least -attempt at familiarity, even when she caught the little brute up in -her arms and bestowed upon it kisses, which to Cecil's eye seemed a -great waste of something very charming. - -'My pet, my own pet!' she called it, Snarley the while eyeing -Falconer as if he was his natural enemy or future rival. - -'Hope you slept well, Falconer?' said Sir Piers. - -'Thanks--like a veritable top,' replied Cecil. - -'Right! a regular soldier should be able to sleep anywhere, and never -be surprised on awakening in new quarters.' - -'Been ever in this part of the world before, sir?' asked Mr. John -Balderstone, with his mouth full. - -'Never,' replied Cecil. - -'Ah, you'll soon learn to like Eaglescraig,' added the factor. - -'I am enchanted with it already,' said Cecil, as his eye -involuntarily wandered in Mary's direction; 'and believe that I shall -like it more and more, till it will be quite a wrench when the time -comes to tear myself away.' - -'Then come back, Falconer, for some rod-fishing after Candlemas,' -suggested his host, with a bright smile. - -'Duty, I fear, may clash with your great hospitality; but I thank -you, Sir Piers.' - -'Call me general; I like it better.' - -'To be always called so is my uncle's pet fancy, Mr. Falconer,' said -Mary. - -'All great men have their weaknesses, and I always respect them,' -remarked Hew, with one of his scarcely perceptible sneers, for now -Sir Piers, to his irritation, had plunged into some reminiscences of -snipe-shooting at Dumdum, where he was wont to be for some hours up -to the waist in water under a burning Bengal sun, necessitating -frequent libations of brandy-pawnee; then, by some rapid transition -of thought, he found himself detailing a march of the Cameronians -through the jungles of Arcot, with the rain pouring in torrents, the -road knee-deep in mud and mire, the men drenched, the tents soaked -through, the mess and baggage animals miles in the rear, the column -having to cross a nullah where the water ran like a mill-race, and -there was the devil to pay! - -Other anecdotes would have followed, but Hew, who had seen enough of -India in reality too, proposed a move to the gun-room and thence to -the covers. - -'Time indeed to be off, gentlemen,' said the general, looking at his -watch. 'Tunley, fill those flasks.' - -'And have more sandwiches cut,' added Mrs. Garth. - -'I shall cut them for Mr. Falconer; he is the only stranger here,' -said Mary Montgomerie, hurrying to the sideboard, and proceeding -deftly with her pretty hands to do so; while Cecil murmured his -thanks, and tendered his silver case, or sandwich-box. - -'Can't the cook do this?' growled Hew in her ear. - -'Yes, but not half so well as I,' replied the girl, laughingly. 'I -can be so expert when I choose, Hew.' - -In the hall, where hung all manner of hats and greatcoats, plaids, -whips, salmon-listers, whips and walking-sticks, Sir Piers assumed an -old and well-worn wideawake, the band of which was usually garnished -with hooks and flies, for he was as keen a sportsman with his rod and -line as with his double-barrelled gun. And now the whole party set -forth from the house, Cecil looking more than once to the soft faces -of the two smiling girls, who, from the breakfast-room window, -watched their departure. - -His mind _already_ was full of sweet Mary Montgomerie, and he would -rather, a thousand times, have remained, to sun himself in the light -of her winning eyes, than to toil through the damp covers to knock -over a few rabbits or a brace of harmless birds; and he could but -console himself by counting the hours that must inevitably elapse ere -he could meet her again, and strive to endure them as best he might. - -Hew detected one of these glances thrown back to 'the face at the -window,' and remembering his ramble with Mary in the Dovecot Park, -bit his nether lip; and before the day's shooting was over, Falconer -had a specimen of what the amiable Hew might be capable of doing if -provoked. - -Preoccupied thus, Cecil Falconer thought that on this particular -morning 'the Land of Burns' seemed uncommonly dreary. Mist was -rolling along the valleys, and the landscape looked dank and moist -through its medium. - -Hew, who, though not ungentlemanlike in bearing, was, as we have -said, naturally coarse in mind, and sometimes blunt in manner, the -result of association with billiard-markers and stablemen, on seeing -Falconer give another glance towards the house, said abruptly, and -with what he meant to be a laugh: - -'I don't think you can see her now.' - -'Her--who?' asked Falconer, with surprise. - -'Well, my cousin; for I think you evidently admire her.' - -'An odd remark!' thought Cecil, looking a little annoyed; but he -said, cordially: - -'I do indeed admire her; who could fail to do so? But what leads you -to infer that I do so more particularly?' - -'By Jove! I saw that your eyes were seldom off her; but it is no -use, Mr. Falconer,' said Hew, with a pretended genial laugh, 'as she -has no eyes in reality--save for one fellow.' - -'What the deuce can he mean?' thought Falconer, a little annoyed by -the speaker's manner, which seemed to indicate advice or warning, or -impertinence. - -'You are cousins, then?' he merely said coldly. - -'Well, of course, in a manner of way--rather remote, you know,' -replied Hew, his closely-set eyes looking more shifty than ever, as -he scraped a match and lighted a huge cigar; 'but blood is thicker -than water, and it goes a long way in Scotch reckonings; and thus she -naturally looks to _me_ as the future head of the house,' he added -complacently, 'as the heir of entail. And Mary is indeed handsome! -There was no girl handsomer out last season, or when she was -presented--I mean in the quiet and thoroughbred style.' - -'What a cad this fellow is!' thought Falconer. - -'Ah, you have looked admiringly back at the house,' said Sir Piers, -who had another theory on the subject; 'the old tower is the part of -it that is most to my taste. The cliff was called Eaglescraig, -because ages ago a couple of gigantic eagles built a nest there every -summer--a nest of branches and great sticks on the giddy verge of the -cliff--and the vicinity of it was always found strewed with the bones -of muirfowl, ptarmigan, rabbits, and even lambs. A poor man who -lived near it made quite a subsistence for himself and his family, -during a famine consequent on an English invasion, by robbing the -eaglets of the food brought by the parents; and one day he found a -little fair-skinned and golden-haired child therein, brought no one -knew from where, by the male bird, but safe and sound. It grew to be -a man of vast strength and stature, and he carried the banner of the -Bailiwick at the battle of Largs--and certainly that field was not -fought and won yesterday.' - -The day was unquestionably a bleak one. The last few leaves were -fluttering down from the bare trees, the branches and twigs of which -stood blankly and darkly up against the dull grey sky; elsewhere the -red and brown remnant of rustling foliage that still lingered on the -oaks and ashes was thinned by every passing breeze; and even the gay -cock pheasant, as he skimmed over the gorse to seek his food in the -untilled land, might be heard to croak as he went. - -Grim old Sandy Swanshot, the head-keeper, and his staff, had already -traversed the covers; the muzzled ferrets had been down in the rabbit -burrows, scaring forth the occupants; firm, stealthy, and quick-eyed, -they drove them into the gorse or elsewhere, and now the earth had -been stopped everywhere, barring all return to their well-known -holes, which they would never find again. - -The cottage of the keeper, old Sandy, a veteran sportsman, -silver-haired and wrinkled, who had often carried the general's -game-bag when they were both 'school laddies,' was a busy scene that -morning. It was a thatched edifice, garlanded round with dead -wild-cats, weasels, foumarts, hawks, and 'other vermin,' which in -their decay tainted the winter air, and its occupant was old enough -to remember when the system of shooting with muzzle-loaders was very -different from what it is to-day; when a cover was beaten with a -precision quite military, and when the order 'Halt! reload!' went -down the line, every man, be he shooter or beater, had to stop where -he was, until the last barrel had been charged anew; and the old man -had a supreme contempt for the perilous style of blazing away that -had come in with arms of precision and the slaughter of battues. - -All the dogs around him seemed to know instinctively that they were -about to take the field, and kept up a chorus of mingled whining and -barking; and all the beaters were there, somewhat motley in aspect -and appearance, but all doffing their bonnets respectfully, as Sir -Piers came up with his 'guns' from the manor-house; and each of the -latter underwent, unknown to himself, a critical scrutiny under the -keen eyes of these practised fellows--his dress, his gun, his -gaiters, his shot-belt, every buckle and strap being duly noticed and -commented on. - -We may hope that Cecil Falconer's bearing and equipment carried him -through this unknown ordeal; but the old keeper, who had an -instinctive dislike of Hew Montgomerie, whispered to him as a -stranger, though Sandy was, in Scottish parlance, a _dour carl_: - -'Gie him a wide berth in the cover, sir! Shooting? _he_ might as -well be ballooning!' - -Sandy knew some of Hew's vagaries when at cover, such as shooting -down the line of the beaters and his companions, letting fly at a -bird whose flight was no higher than a man's head, fingering his -trigger, heedless of whether the muzzle was pointed to the sky or the -earth, and as careless of his friends as if they were clad in Milan -mail; for he was one of those awkward fellows who had not even the -simple prudence which Charles Dickens ascribes to the obese Mr. Tracy -Tupman, when that personage discovered that his chief object was to -fire his gun without danger to his friends, himself, or the dogs. - -The covers of Eaglescraig were of considerable extent, and were well -preserved and carefully looked after; and though Sir Piers, as he -said, thought it very slow work compared with pig-sticking in -six-foot-high jungle-grass, or potting a man-eater from a howdah, it -was what suited him now, and in less than five minutes he had all his -'guns' in 'order of battle,' marshalled apart in a line of about a -hundred and forty yards or so, the beaters being chequered in the -gaps between the sportsmen. - -Advancing thus, like skirmishers in extended order, on the right -flank of the line, were masses of whin-bush (or gorse as it is called -in England), displaying still here and there a golden flower; and -away on the left the cover went deep into the dark recesses of a -copse, under the tall red stems of Scottish firs, larch, and -ash-trees. - -Hew and Cecil were in this quarter, and a little in the rear was the -keeper, the latter scanning the whole, as far as he well could, from -flank to flank, rebuking from time to time, in his deep, broad -Ayrshire Doric, any stupid beater who lagged behind, while the sharp -crack of the guns woke the echoes of the dingles, which occasionally -seemed to reply to quite an irregular volley. - -Among the gorse the chief victims were ground game, but amid the -coppice the ruddy golden-hued pheasants were momentarily flurried up, -and arrested in their whirring flight by the crack of the fatal -breechloader. - -Ever and anon, the voice of the keeper was heard, with the -prohibitory cry of-- - -''Ware hen--'ware hen, Master Hew!' - -Among much other spoil, Cecil knocked over a fine cock-pheasant, -which fell crashing down among the underwood in the agonies of -death--a charge of shot in his gold-speckled breast. - -'Why the deuce did you shoot my bird, sir?' demanded Hew with un -courteous abruptness of Falconer. - -'He thocht, perhaps, ye war gaun to miss it, as ye did the last twa, -and the hare,' said the old keeper, drily. - -'I beg your pardon,' replied Cecil quietly, as he reloaded; 'but that -bird was mine.' - -'It was not!' was the blunt and rude rejoinder. - -Falconer coloured and bit his lip; but thought of his courtly old -host, and desirous of avoiding a scene, simply said: - -'Let us keep further apart, Mr. Montgomerie.' - -'As far off as you please,' added Hew ungraciously, and moving -further away to his left. - -Cecil continued to work his way between the crowded fir and larch -stems, which, by receiving many a charge of shot, saved the birds -that hovered beyond them, the voice of the keeper crying ever and -anon: 'Mark cock!' 'Hare forward!' ''Ware hen.' 'A hare for you, -Master Hew--a miss again!' 'Come to heel, Countess--come to heel!' -the latter, with the vicious whack of a whip, was directed to one of -the pointers. - -While Cecil was inwardly laughing at Hew's wild shooting, a charge of -shot from the right whizzed past his face and tore away the rim of -his hat. - -A natural exclamation of rage and alarm escaped him, as he had so -narrowly escaped having his sight destroyed or his face disfigured -for life, and looking whence the shot came, he saw Hew gently -slipping another cartridge into the breech of his gun, under cover of -a great Scottish fir with a red gnarled stem. - -'I shall thank you, sir, to keep your muzzle up, or quit the ground!' -said Falconer, angrily. - -'It was a devil of a mistake--and I beg your pardon,' replied Hew, -giving his cold damp hand to Cecil, who saw--or thought he saw--a -quiet twinkle of mingled malice and amusement in the speaker's -bilious eye. - -'Blundering fool! Could he have meant it? Looks deuced like it--but -why?' thought the young officer more angrily, as he thought over the -matter. - -'He weel-nigh shot Sir Piers in the same unco fashion, sir,' grumbled -the old keeper; while Cecil now changed his ground again, and for -actual safety kept closer to Hew than ever. - -Four long beats through the covers brought luncheon-time, and while -flasks and sandwiches were produced, the slain were counted as they -were laid in long rows on the side of a grassy bank, each keeper, as -he came up in succession, adding his quota to the general stock, all -furred and feathered victims from the covers of Eaglescraig, and so -numerous, that the sportsmen thought enough had been done for one day. - -'I may deem myself lucky that I was not added to _your_ bag to-day, -Mr. Montgomerie,' said Cecil, laughing, but not with genuine hilarity. - -'What! has Hew been at his old tricks again?' asked Sir Piers, with -an air of annoyance. - -'E'en sae, sir,' said Sandy, taking a flask from his mouth, 'firing -doon the line as before.' - -'My gun exploded unexpectedly, sir,' said Hugh, with a sullen look; -'I explained to Mr. Falconer, and he has accepted my apology.' - -Something in his manner caused this episode to rankle in the memory -of Cecil. - -'By Jove, I think the cad _had_ intended to pot me, after all!' was -his occasional thought, and he never precisely forgot or forgave the -suspicion--one too grave in its diabolical spirit of mischief and -cruelty to be dismissed lightly; and though he laughed at some jokes -made by old Mr. Balderstone on the matter, he really saw nothing to -laugh at in it, and was very well pleased when the whole party bent -their steps homeward--all the more pleased when he thought of the -pleasant society that awaited him. - -Falconer began to wonder whether he was actually falling in love -already with the beautiful grand-niece of his host. He had never -believed much in 'that sort of thing,' at first sight especially; but -he was young and impressionable; he possessed a keen imagination, and -he already caught himself weaving mental conversations with -her--conversations in which tender little speeches came -involuntarily, though unuttered, to his lips, and soft smiles hovered -on hers, when she seemed to hear them; but when--after changing his -muddy shooting-costume for another--he joined the ladies in the -drawing-room, remembering the almost rude remarks of Hew Montgomerie, -Cecil, in approaching Mary, or conversing with her, had an angry -sense of being watched, or observed, by that personage; though a time -came when he ceased to think or care on the subject. - -And who was 'the one fellow' for whom she had only eyes, as Hew had -vulgarly phrased it? Most probably Hew meant himself! If so, Cecil -thought that she cloaked or concealed her partiality with wonderful -discretion. - -To avoid interfering with that gentleman's views or wishes, Cecil -gave much of his attention to Annabelle Erroll, and even to 'the old -soldier,' as Hew called Mrs. Garth; but Mary summoned him to her side -to see Snarley put through all his performances, such as leaping over -her interlaced hands as through a ring, walking erect round the room -for a lump of sugar, tossing another high off his sharp nose at the -word of command, to catch it with a snap in its descent, and so -forth, all the while he did so eyeing Cecil with undisguised -hostility. - -And eventually the evening closed in like the preceding one (save -that old Sir Piers, worn out with his day's sport, had fallen asleep -in an easy-chair, with a handkerchief spread over his face), with -music and duet-singing, and pleasant conversation, ere some of the -visitors rose to depart. - -That there should be so much duet-singing, and Mary's occupation with -the stranger, and that the general conversation was of a kind in -which he could bear no prominent part, disgusted Hew, who was in a -detestable humour; yet he had the policy to conceal it pretty well -(though his bilious eye was more bilious than ever) till once, he -drew near Mary, while Cecil, in another part of the room, was -occupied with old Mrs. Garth, who was relating with great unction -some memory of the Cameronians in _her_ day; and now Hew's ready -jealousy became painfully apparent. - -'Good heavens, Hew!' said Mary, in a low voice, her dark eyes -dilating as she spoke; 'what is this Mr. Balderstone has told us?' - -'Can't say, for the life of me; the old pump!' - -'That you nearly shot Mr. Falconer to-day in the Fir Wood.' - -'Did I? Well, the blundering fellow was out of his proper place, I -suppose,' was the sulky rejoinder. - -'What a dreadful thing if you had injured him! Hew! you are -positively dangerous.' - -'My dear Mary, you deem him an Admirable Crichton, I doubt not,' said -he, smilingly, in her ear. - -'What do _you_ deem him?' - -'Slow and deuced ugly.' - -'Ugly--oh, come, Hew!' said Mary, laughing very merrily at such -undisguised jealousy, which somehow did not flatter her in the -least--it was too comical. - -'I have no doubt our "old soldier" here deems him a very eligible -_parti_ for anyone; a subaltern, with two shirts a week and a few -dickies, by Jove!' he continued. - -'How--how coarse you are!' said Mary, with her silvery laugh again; -'but don't let grand-uncle hear you sneering thus. He, too, was a -subaltern once.' - -'Yes, but with the rent-roll of Eaglescraig! I wish him well out of -our neighbourhood anyway,' he added threateningly. - -'Why, what harm has he done you?' - -'None as yet,' replied Hew, getting more sulky than ever; 'but I may -harm him!' - -'How?' - -'If he comes in my way with you, Mary, or anyone else--understand -that clearly, cousin.' - -Mary's brow darkened, and a haughty expression, not unmixed with -alarm, stole into her hazel eyes and soft face, as she said, while -quickly using her fan: - -'Hew, you forget yourself, and me too! How dare you adopt this tone?' - -'Don't think to make a fool of me, Mary.' - -'Impossible, sir!' - -'You think so?' - -'Yes. Nature has been before me,' she replied, as she rose and swept -across the room to the side of old Mr. Balderstone. - -The eyes of Hew, like those of Uriah Heep, 'seemed to take any shade -of colour that could make eyes ugly,' as they followed her beautiful -figure, and a savage emotion gathered in his avaricious heart as he -felt that the chances of his wooing with success--a wooing that was -without pure love--were receding further away than ever; but whatever -were his thoughts, to show that there was no bad feeling between -Cecil Falconer and himself, after all had retired to rest that night, -he invited the former to have a quiet little game of écarté in the -smoking-room--a game from which the Cameronian did _not_, somehow, -come away a winner. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -HEW MAKES A VOW. - -For the next few days Cecil Falconer continued to give Hew a 'gey -wide berth,' as the old keeper phrased it, at the covers, where each -day's shooting was precisely like that which preceded it. If Hew, -thought Falconer, were capable of such mad jealousy and dastardly -cruelty after a few hours' acquaintance, of what might he not be -capable and guilty in the time to come? - -Was it his blundering stupidity which, as the gamekeeper said, had -nearly cost Sir Piers his life once before, or a spirit of infernal -malevolence to revenge the petty dispute about the cock-pheasant, -that made him fire his gun in the way he had done? - -At times Cecil was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and -as he was not of a resentful temperament, he gradually either forgot -the event, or remembered it only as a mistake, that might have proved -more serious than it did. So each day's shooting passed pleasantly -over, and the evenings were devoted to music in the drawing-room, -where Mrs. Garth dispensed tea at a pretty little oval -table--fragrant orange Pekoe, out of tiny eggshell cups, without -handles--and where Sir Piers fell fast asleep over his _Scotsman_; -and the night wound up by Hew luring Falconer into what he termed 'a -little mild play' in the smoking-room--play from which the latter -always rose a loser, without being able precisely to know how. - -Save for this kind of thing, which he could ill afford, Falconer -thought the brief term of his leave would be delightfully spent at -Eaglescraig. A 'green yule' had come and gone, without skating or -curling, and the owl whooped nightly on the old tower-head, where the -winter wind shook the masses of ivy on the time-worn walls; and the -New Year was ushered in with well-bred joviality, rather than the -hearty old-fashioned uproariousness of the olden time, though in the -drawing-room the chorus could be heard from the servant's hall, where -Mr. Tunley led it with joyous vociferation, singing, - - 'Here's a health to the year that's awa'!' - -And precisely as the house-clocks struck twelve--midnight--the -house-door was unbarred with great formality, and thrown open to let -the Old Year _out_, and the New Year _in_; and rising from his -elbow-chair, Sir Piers kissed his niece Mary, and then old Mrs. Garth -in a courtly fashion, an example Hew Montgomerie was not slow to -follow on the soft cheek of the former, while Falconer looked -laughingly, yet perhaps enviously, on, and dared only press her hand -as he did that of Miss Erroll; and then there was a general -handshaking with Mr. Balderstone and other old friends who had been -invited to join the social circle. - -The rubicund Mr. Tunley offered, in the name of all the servants, to -drink their old master's good health, and the health of all the -family; and Sir Piers, natheless all his pride, cordially shook the -old butler's hand, and each wished the other many happy years to -come; and he went through the same ceremony with all in the servants' -hall. - -In all this homely warmth, mutual kindness and goodwill, there was -much that charmed Falconer; for though belonging to a Scottish -regiment, and one famous in history, educated as he had been far away -from his native country, and under peculiar circumstances, he knew -little or nothing of the ways and customs of the latter. - -He had been much a wanderer, and never knew a home, save such as he -had found with his regiment; so there was much in the little circle -at Eaglescraig to delight him. Save with Hew, he won golden opinions -from all there; his genial manner, spirited good-humour, handsome -bearing, and facile mode of adapting himself to those among whom -chance threw him--a mode that came, perhaps, of his having been -educated abroad--all seemed to make him a prime favourite. - -He could speak much, and pleasantly, of what he had seen and where he -had been; he was a reader, too, and the fruit of his reading cropped -up pleasantly from time to time in the course of conversations that -Hew could take little or no part in, greatly to his own wrath. - -'What a place this is for gammon and spinach!' thought Hew, who -viewed all this with extreme distaste, and still more the intimacy -that progressed between this 'interloper,' as he deemed him, and Mary -Montgomerie; for they nightly played together the mazurkas of Chopin -and selections from the songs of Mendelssohn and the operas of Verdi, -while Hew looked darkly and dubiously on, thinking there was in all -this far more than met the eye; and Sir Piers thought, with a smile, -that a Cameronian of _his_ time would certainly not have shone much -as a pianist. - -Mary was always so happy in herself, that she usually made all others -equally so; thus, in her society, the hours, with Falconer, seemed to -fly like minutes. - -Hew had--unknown to Sir Piers--become so seriously involved in -monetary matters during his sojourn in India, that it was next to -impossible for him to return there; and his chief hope for retrieving -himself and doing well for the future lay in a marriage with Mary -Montgomerie, rather than the prospective succession to the baronetcy -and to the acres of Eaglescraig, for Sir Piers was a hale old fellow -and might live for twenty years yet. Indeed, everyone said so. - -Thus he viewed with extreme bitterness and jealousy the visit of -Falconer and some of the details attendant on that visit, and his -closely-set and parti-coloured eyes twinkled dangerously as he -muttered: - -'Devil take me if I don't bowl that fellow out yet!' - -If Hew had been tender and true, less brusque and coarse--had really -loved Mary with a loving heart--she might have felt some compunction -for her laughing indifference to his suit; but she knew well his -avarice, his monetary hopes, and suspected some of his vices; and, -more than all, her proud spirit revolted at the idea of being made by -her father's will the mere puppet of a family compact, and -_compelled_ to marry any man. - -'I heard you arranging a riding-party to-morrow, Mary,' said he, -during a pause (or while Falconer was being accompanied in an Italian -song by Miss Erroll), and bending over Mary till his moustache nearly -touched the white and close division in her rich dark-brown hair, -while she idled over an album of Indian photographs. - -'Yes--you will go, of course, Hew?' said she, looking up at him with -her sunny hazel eyes bright with a smile. - -'I would rather be excused,' he replied, sulkily. - -'Why?' - -'Why? because I should be only in the way.' - -'Please yourself, Hew; but I do not understand you,' said Mary, -colouring with annoyance; '_what_ do you mean?' - -'I mean,' said he bluntly, and in a low, concentrated voice, 'that -before this Cameronian fellow came, you and I were--were----' - -'Were what?' asked Mary, sharply. - -'Well, friends, at least.' - -'And are we not friends now?' she said, laying her hand on his arm. -He looked lingeringly at it--a lovely hand it was, round and white, -with a golden bangle clasping the dimpled wrist--and he said in a low -voice: - -'I had hoped we should in time be something dearer----' - -'Oh, stuff! Dear Hew, don't begin that sort of thing here,' replied -Mary, laughing to conceal her annoyance; 'you will forget all about -it when you go back to India again.' - -Hew's face darkened ominously. - -'But you don't like India?' added Mary, somewhat teasingly, while a -roguish smile dimpled her cheeks. - -'I hate it, as you know well; yet I may have to return there, for all -that you care about it, or me.' - -'There are tigers there, and snakes, and all those sort of things, -Hew?' - -'Yes, and perhaps you would like them to eat me?' he asked, viciously. - -'Oh, Hew! how can you speak thus!' she exclaimed, laughing. 'I never -said so.' - -'But you thought it, all the same.' - -She laughed louder at this, for Hew's peculiar love-making, if it -annoyed, always excessively amused her at the same time--a fatal -element for him. - -The morning of the proposed ride proved a beautiful one, clear, -bracing, and sunny, and the horses were betimes brought round from -the stables to the stately perron in front of the house, where Hew -was smoking a cigar, when the girls came forth in their -riding-habits, attended by Cecil Falconer. - -'And you are resolved not to accompany us, Hew?' asked Mary, -coaxingly, desirous to please him. - -'Yes,' he replied, bluntly. - -'What a pity the season is not summer,' she said to Falconer, 'we -could have such pleasant sketching expeditions, picnics, afternoon -tea on the lawn, croquet-matches and lawn-tennis; but our picnics are -so jolly, and we always use the big omnibus, in which the servants -drive on Sundays to the kirk of Eaglescraig.' - -'Croquet is only good for one thing,' muttered Hew; 'it enables a -fellow to loaf with some girl he is soft upon; otherwise I never -could see anything in it,' he added in his growling tone. - -Slender and willowy looked the figure of Mary in her tight, -well-fitted habit, even more so than that of Miss Erroll, who was -undoubtedly a very handsome girl. - -Hew, having been in India, had been compelled to learn riding; but he -was a timid and indifferent cavalier, afraid of a horse, indeed, and -he could never have done what he saw Mary doing, tickling, patting, -and kissing the nose of her favourite pad, ere she was swung into her -saddle so deftly by Cecil, to whose care and companionship, together -with those of Annabelle Erroll, he was now compelled to relinquish -her, as the three departed, merrily and laughingly, to visit the -ruined castle of Kilbirnie, amid its stately parks and beautiful -gardens. - -Down the long avenue they went under oaks and elms that had been -growing since the field of Pinkecleugh was fought and lost; and -between a pair of grand old carved iron gates, surmounted by a -coat-of-arms and supported by massive stone pillars covered with grey -lichen and green moss, and past the lodge, the occupant of which, an -old wooden-legged Cameronian, stood at 'attention' as they issued out -upon the roadway, watched by the evil eyes of Hew, to begin a two -hours' 'spin' through a rich and pastoral country. - -Conversation of the stereotyped kind, concerning the weather and so -forth, had been long ignored by Falconer and Miss Montgomerie. - -'I shall show you some beautiful scenery,' said she, as they -shortened their horses' pace to a walk; 'it is of the pastoral kind, -of course--for this is the land of dairy-farms and Dunlop -cheeses--all hill and dale; and though there are no mountains, we are -very proud of Cunninghame,' she added, laughing. 'Do you draw?' - -'Yes.' - -'And paint?' - -'A little, in water-colours.' - -'What a pity it is winter-time! Were the season open, we might -sketch together, and how delightful that would be!' - -Cecil Falconer cordially agreed with her. - -'You must know that I love all this place dearly, wood, wold, and -water,' exclaimed the girl, with a bright smile, as she looked around -her with eyes the greatest beauty of which was their happy -expression, girlish truthfulness, and the innocence of a nature that -had never sought either to simulate or conceal an emotion; 'but I -fear you will deem me very provincial.' - -'Why--for loving your native place?' - -'Ah! but this is _not_ my native place. I was born far away from -here; but since poor papa followed mamma to her grave, I have lived -at Eaglescraig, and all the happiest memories of my childhood, and -girlhood too, are connected with it; so I love the bold rocky -scenery, the great bluffs that overhang the Firth of Clyde, and the -green pastoral valleys of Cunninghame. I know every farm and -cottage, every coppice and wimpling burn, in the bailiwick.' - -'Is it long since your parents died, Miss Montgomerie?' asked -Falconer, as their conversation began to take a personal turn. - -'Yes; oh, so long ago that I can only remember them as if in a dream!' - -'That is sad.' - -'And yours--was your father in the Cameronians?' - -'He died when I was in infancy; and where, I scarcely know.' - -'But he, too, was a soldier, of course?' - -'I think not,' said Falconer, evasively. - -'I am too curious--pardon me; but I am a terrible talker,' she added, -and changed the subject, which Annabelle Erroll perceived had brought -an unwonted colour to the young man's cheeks. - -Falconer had often thought that, had his father lived, there would -have been a great difference in his own life somehow, though he could -not distinctly define the nature of it. - -'How I wish your friend had been here with you,' Mary Montgomerie -said, after a pause. - -'Leslie Fotheringhame?' - -'Yes; but Sir Piers said it was impossible.' - -'He, too, could not leave our detachment.' - -'How lonely he must be, shut up in that dull castle of Dumbarton. -His name is a scarce one; is he one of the old Fotheringhames of -Angus?' - -'I believe so,' said Miss Erroll, colouring after she spoke. - -'We should have made quite a pleasant quartette!' said Miss -Montgomerie. 'Does he sing?' - -'Oh yes--so well!' replied Annabelle, ere Falconer could speak. - -'How do _you_ know?' asked her friend, laughing. - -Annabelle, usually taciturn and silent, now changed colour more -perceptibly, and replied: - -'Surely Mr. Falconer must have said so! How should _I_ know, -otherwise?' - -Cecil was perfectly aware that he had never done so, but was puzzled -to think how Miss Erroll was aware of his friend's talent. - -'You have met, perhaps?' he began. - -'In society--yes; people meet each other everywhere nowadays,' she -replied, and looked another way. - -The three riders were still in view of the loftily-situated house and -tall old tower of Eaglescraig, and Hew's eyes, from the terrace, were -following them. - -He seemed still to see the skill and grace with which--as if he -caressed her--Cecil Falconer had swung Mary Montgomerie into her -saddle, and the care and tenderness with which he adjusted her -stirrup, her habit, and reins. He seemed to see, too, the light in -the eyes of both as they scampered down the long avenue, ere he -turned away to get a foaming beaker of soda-and-brandy, in Mr. -Tunley's pantry, as a panacea for his bitter thoughts. - -He watched the trio disappear over a slope, or braehead, where the -road dipped downward, and he registered a vow of vengeance on Cecil -Falconer if the latter crossed his purposes--a vow all the deeper for -being unspoken--and he achieved it terribly when the time came, and -it was ultimately to assume a form and force beyond even what he -himself could have conceived! - -Nature had cursed Hew with a suspicious and jealous disposition; -inherent doubt of everyone was a part of that very disposition. -Thus, his own total want of success with Mary Montgomerie, on one -hand, led him, on the other, to conceive the most exaggerated ideas -of the progress Cecil Falconer must already have made with her. - -Hew Montgomerie, when he chose, could be 'a good hater,' and, as -such, would have been decidedly after the heart of the 'great' -English lexicographer, whose hateful addendum was, 'I never forgive -an injury;' but Cecil had in no way injured Hew. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -A REVELATION. - -Of Cecil Falconer's mood of mind and views of the whole situation at -this time, we can be best informed by a letter which he despatched to -his friend and chum, Leslie Fotheringhame, on the day subsequent to -the little riding expedition: - - -'Eaglescraig, Cunninghame. - -'MY DEAR LESLIE, - -'Hannibal has found his Capua! After our limited cuisine at -Dumbarton, it seems to me that--so far as luxury is concerned--daily -Lucullus dines with Apicius; by which preamble you will think, old -fellow, that I have gone out of my mind, or betaken me to cramming -again, as we did at Sandhurst. I am freely quartered in a -magnificent house, with delightful society, and an old host, the -general, who is hospitality's own self, and possesses a well-filled -stable and a rare cellar--not that I care for it much--but any way, -in its binns are some curious old Madeira that has been thrice round -the Cape, white and red Constantia, Tokay with tints of gold, -Chateau-Yquem, and Malmsey in which maudlin Clarence might have been -drowned. - -'We have had some excellent cover shooting, and, though the birds -were a little wild, a good many brace fell to my bag. Nothing is -stiff or formal here, though the old gentleman has some stately, -eccentric, and rather extravagant notions about family, pedigree, -blood, and all that sort of thing, and laments much the loss of a son -who was once one of "Ours." There are two charming girls here, and -after one's bachelor and barrack experiences, it is delightful to -meet them each day at breakfast, with their fresh morning costumes -and complexions; and charming, too, is the morning-room--quite like -that described in "Coningsby": "Such a profusion of flowers; such a -multitude of books; such a prodigality of writing materials; so many -easychairs too, of so many shapes, each in itself a comfortable home; -yet nothing crowded." And then the girls! Don't you envy me, old -fellow! But I have no doubt they will have you over here when -I--alas!--leave, for the old double Dun in the Clyde. - -'There is one blot in my picture--a member of the family circle, -named Hew Caddish Montgomerie, to whom I am obliged to do the civil, -the general's heir--whom I simply detest and view in the light of a -noxious reptile, why or how I cannot precisely say; but we have our -likings and dislikings in this world, our attractions and repulsions, -and _certes_, this fellow repels me! - -'He is jowly in face, with full, red lips, heavy, stealthy, and -shifty eyes, set close to his nose, and he inherits rather reddish -hair and freckles from the family who gave him his middle name, -which, curiously enough, is Caddish; and in spite, jealousy, or by a -blunder, he nearly potted me one day in the covers! - -'I think he already views me as a species of rival; he is a sort of -cousin of Miss Montgomerie (would that I were so! but I am only one -of those poor devils who exist in the world on sufferance), and -whether they are engaged or not I cannot tell. He has half led me to -infer as much, and assumes a disgusting air of proprietary and so -forth, which certainly is not endorsed by Miss Montgomerie.' - -(Falconer had written 'by _Mary_,' but had dashed through the -Christian name, which had escaped his pen, and Fotheringhame remarked -this.) - -'Anyhow, I was cognisant of a rather tender scene between them in the -avenue on the day I arrived here. He is deuced sharp at cards, and I -have already lost to him much more than I can afford to lose. - -'The general is an enthusiast on all that pertains to the regiment, -and quite a detachment of it, in the shape of old pensioners, is -quartered on his property. His Indian anecdotes are a little prosy, -as he lugs them in on every conceivable occasion; but he is such a -dear old fellow, that one can't help listening to his yarns about -curry and rice; and a curious one he told me, last night, may -interest you, as it referred to his son and a detachment of "Ours." - -'When they were in Central India, Piers Montgomerie, with forty -Cameronians and some natives, invested a fort named the Ghurry of -Kittoor, a square edifice with towers at the corners, armed with -heavy gingals and a few small cannon. The Potail commanding it was a -resolute fellow, believing himself shot-proof, by an amulet he wore, -and he was custodian of a great amount of treasure in gold mohurs, of -which Piers had orders to deprive him. The fort was stormed, the -Potail slain, and the treasure-chest was found, but totally -empty--verifying the last words of the Potail, who, when dying, swore -upon the Koran that there was not even an anna in the place, and that -all the slaughter had been for nothing. - -'Before the gate of the Ghurry there grew a tree of vast size and -age, which Captain Montgomerie ordered his men to cut down for fuel. -The soldier who hewed down the first branch brought away with it a -literal shower of gold--gold that flashed in the sunshine and studded -all the green sward like yellow buttercups; and there, sure enough, -in the hollow trunk of the tree, was found treasure to the value of -fifty thousand golden mohurs, to the bewilderment and joy of the -Cameronians, who had been on such short rations for some time past, -that they were ready to share the repast of Count Ugolino. - -'I listen patiently to such yarns, because I am anxious to remain in -his good graces; would that I could also be in those of his ward and -niece! - -'I believe, Leslie, that you are nearer to my heart than any other -friend I ever had, so I don't mind owning to you that I am in for -it--about to fall in love! I have always been at the same old game, -you will say; but this time I fear that I am in terrible earnest, and -have met my fate! But the deuce is, that she is a great heiress, -while I have only my pay, or little more, and dare not lift my eyes -so high; besides, what would be the use, as I strongly suspect that, -with the general's wish and consent, she is the _fiancée_ of his -heir--the most unamiable, yet enviable, Cousin Hew! - -'She is more than handsome--she is downright beautiful! Somewhat of -a brunette, only a very pale and colourless one, with a small -straight nose, dark hazel eyes, and dark brown hair, and her mouth is -the sweetest in expression I ever saw; but I think I see you laughing -at all this, you unbelieving villain! - -'Even now, as I write in the library, she makes a delicious picture, -with her beautiful slender throat and shapely head, as she stands in -an oriel, whispering to a canary which flutters its golden wings -against the bars of its cage, and takes from her rosy lips a crumb of -sugar in its bill. - -'She is frank and open-hearted, and somehow seems to sympathise with -all my thoughts and fancies, and we have already gone some length in -a mixture of confidential jest and earnest, which, though it may only -amuse her, is perilous work to me. She is, perhaps, a little proud -of her beauty; but what pretty girl is not? She seems a creature -that draws brightness from all around her, while dispensing it in -return, and to have been made only to be petted, admired, and -caressed. - -'You will think that I am hit hard. Well, old fellow, I grant to you -that I am, and already a remoteness seems to have come over my -past--our old barrack-room life at Dumbarton and elsewhere. - -'To be hourly in the society of such a girl--to have her daily to -walk, to ride, to sing with--is sure to have but one end. Her voice, -by the way, is a clear and thrilling soprano--her touch upon the keys -is full of tenderness; but a distrust of myself besets me sorely, and -leaves unspoken the words that--despite the existence of Cousin -Hew--hover on my lips. - -'Why? you will ask. - -'Because it is difficult for a man that is poor, and has not even -high family to recommend him, to be deemed other than a -fortune-hunter, when he aspires to an undoubted heiress; but I shall -tell you all about this when I rejoin, and Fate has dropped its pall -between her and me. - -'I have lost at écarté to Hew Montgomerie, and have given him my -I.O.U. for a hundred and eighty pounds. Please lend me the money, -like a dear old fellow, and I shall square it up somehow, ere we go -back to head-quarters, as we are sure to do when the spring drills -commence, as I loathe to be in this fellow's debt, and the sum is -rather a crusher to me. - -'I hope all is right with our detachment, and that you grant no -passes for more than twenty-four hours, and look sharp after our -fellows. I must close now, as we are about to have a spin through -the country, as far as Kilwinning, to see the company of archers -practise, for old Sir Piers has more than once been captain of the -popinjay in June, and a winner of the silver arrow.' - - -He had closed and despatched his letter ere he remembered that he had -omitted all mention, even by name, of Annabelle Erroll. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -HEW'S 'MILD PLAY.' - -Fotheringhame wrote promptly back to Falconer; his letter contained -the 'needful,' and some bantering advice with reference to his love -affair. - -'For a man in full possession of his senses,' he wrote, 'you are -evidently far gone indeed; and if matrimony alone will cure you, and -cause thereby the loss of a thorough good fellow to the corps and the -service, why the deuce don't you propose, and turn the flank of the -cub named Hew, of whose "mild play" I would advise you to beware, -especially as écarté is a very rooking kind of game. Cut in for the -girl, if you are determined to chuck yourself away; and, if you play -your cards in love as well as the cousin does at écarté, she will -soon be nestling her blushing cheek on your waistcoat, and scratching -her dainty nose on your diamond studs.' - -'How can he write thus of such a creature as Mary Montgomerie!' -muttered Falconer, indignantly. - -'If she has wealth, it is all the better, as you have none,' -continued the epistle. 'And as far as name is required, a Falconer -is just as good as a Montgomerie, I suppose.' - -'I am doubtful if Sir Piers shares this opinion,' thought Falconer; -but, for the future, he resolved to write no more to Fotheringhame on -the subject now growing daily nearer his heart. - -'When I put on my first red coat,' continued Fotheringhame, 'I -resolved, if I married at all, to condescend to nothing less than a -young dowager duchess, a peeress in her own right, or an heiress, -beautiful as a houri; but none of these have, as yet, come in my way.' - -Falconer lost no time in paying Hew, who gave back the I.O.U., and -invited him to have his revenge in a little 'mild play' that night in -his own room; and the former promised to take it if he could, -resolving the while to keep a sharp watch upon his adversary's play. - -Falconer had not been without a hint concerning it from Mrs. Garth, -who took a motherly interest in him, as a young officer--more than -all, as one of her 'own Cameronians,' as she was wont to call the -corps. - -'You and Hew sit up very late at night, I fear,' she remarked -incidentally; 'smoking, I suppose?' - -'Yes.' - -'Any play?' - -'A little.' - -'Take care,' she resumed softly; 'those who play with Hew often lose -and seldom win. He is such a--such a very good player; and young -men, I know, are so foolish at times.' - -Had she hinted aught of this to the general? - -Falconer was almost inclined to think so, as before Fotheringhame's -inclosure came, his somewhat disturbed and preoccupied air was noted -by his host, who, drawing him aside, said kindly: - -'Look here, Falconer, you seem rather distrait this morning. I was -once a sub myself, and not always a jolly one; are you in want of -ammunition? If so, say the word and my purse is at your service to -any amount; and as for repayment, take your time; "it may be for -years, and it may be for ever," so far as I care, when obliging a -brother officer of my own corps.' - -Thanking the kind old man from his heart, Falconer waived the -subject; and ere the small hours of the night came, he found himself -in Hew Montgomerie's room seated at a table on which were several -packs of new cards. - -The guest of Sir Piers, and the secret admirer of Mary, poor Falconer -felt himself constrained to be victimised nightly in his desire to -'stand well,' as the phrase is, even with Hew: thus he veiled his -growing suspicions and dislike of the latter, who, when quite sober, -for his own purpose, and to win as much as he could from the luckless -sub--a fact and system that would have roused the wrath of Sir -Piers--also veiled, so far as he could, _his_ dislike and jealousy of -Cecil; and thus held over, _pro tem._, his intended vengeance, if his -path or purpose were crossed, though he never forgot the wicked oath -by which he had bound himself. - -To lose again, as he had lost before, Falconer knew might prove his -ruin now; but he resolved to be wary, and to watch well, and though -Hew was a player accustomed to deep and sharp play for years, in -whiling away the lonely hours in an Indian bungalow far up-country, -he was destined to have his _modus operandi_ thoroughly laid bare on -this occasion. - -Personally, Hew was disposed to be offensive to Falconer; but -dissembled, as he was anxious to 'rook' him a little further, and -also to mislead him with reference to his own views concerning Sir -Piers' ward. Cunning hints did much to achieve this with Cecil, and -to curb and perplex the latter, who never forgot the scene in the -avenue on the day of his arrival. - -Hew began by pressing Falconer to partake of a tall and foaming glass -of brandy and soda, of which Tunley had left a supply for them on a -side-table, together with a box of havanas. - -Hew's room was hung with coloured prints of the hunting field, the -paddock, and other horsey subjects, for though no horseman, as we -have said, he made up his book upon coming events and betted freely, -while his knowledge of whist and écarté was only excelled by that -which he possessed of zoology, so far as referred to rats and -badgers. But he loved to affect a 'horsey' style; thus his -mantelpiece was littered by spurs, whips, riding-gloves, and rusty -bits, and pipes, long, short, clay and briar-root; and in one corner -stood a row of boots, the leather tops of which obtained 'their -creamy tint,' as he said, 'from being rubbed with champagne and -apricot juice--a hint given him by a gentleman-jock of the Royal -Hussars.' - -'As usual?' said Hew; 'écarté, I suppose?' - -'Yes,' replied Falconer, as they lit their cigars; 'écarté be it.' - -'By Jove! one would require four eyes to play that game.' - -Falconer thought that in the present instance eight might be -advantageous. - -'Five points, and two packs to facilitate the deal,' said Hew, as he -quickly shuffled the cards; Falconer cut them, and the play began. - -Falconer affected what he did not feel--but very far from it--an -unusually free, easy, and careless manner; looked at the hunting -pictures hung round the room, chatted on indifferent subjects, to -lull the suspicions of Hew, and intent on verifying his own, in which -he found a very unexpected assistant in the form of Mary -Montgomerie's pet terrier Snarley, which had already become -reconciled to him--had taken even a capricious fancy for him (for -which it had been privately kicked more than once by the amiable -Hew); and now it lay coiled up at his feet, and it was while stooping -from time to time to pat the dog, that he perceived the latter come -from under the table with a card in his teeth. - -All this while, Hew had been deeply intent on the points and -counters. He had, however, allowed Falconer, as a lure, no doubt, to -win four games successively, and as many sovereigns, when he suddenly -proposed to increase the stakes to five pounds. - -'Agreed,' said Falconer, almost to the other's surprise, he did it so -readily; and the play went briskly on, while he continued to chat on -irrelevant subjects. - -'Who was that good-looking young fellow who took Miss Montgomerie in -to dinner this evening?' he asked. - -'Good looking? _I_ don't think so, but tastes differ. As to who he -is, I may say that he comes of a good old county stock--nay, is _the_ -stock himself--Bickerton of that ilk. You don't set much store on -that sort of thing, as I remember,' added Hew, who could never resist -saying a disagreeable thing, 'as you didn't seem to care what -Falconers you came of, when Sir Piers--a great man for -pedigree--spoke about it.' - -Cecil Falconer coloured perceptibly at this remark. Hew saw that it -was a sore subject, and thought to himself: - -'Hit him on the raw there, somehow!' - -Meanwhile, Falconer looked curiously at him from time to time. Was -it the growing regard for Mary Montgomerie that induced him, Cecil -Falconer, to dissemble in his bearing towards this fellow, and affect -to forget that, but for a chance next to a miracle, by his hands, on -that day at the covers, he might now have been a mutilated, hideous, -and blind creature--blighted in existence and profession for ever? - -Yes, the influence of Mary alone could make him act the double part -he felt himself to be acting now. - -Hew was dealing, and while Falconer was stooping to pat Snarley, gave -himself--as he had done before--eight cards instead of _five_, some -of which he seemed to drop as if by a blunder, and in mistake only -took up one, leaving the remainder on the carpet till the hand was -played out, when he skilfully, but not unnoticed, contrived to -replace them in the pack. - -'When we are married,' said he, with a nervous chuckle, 'I'll have to -drop all this sort of thing, I suppose.' - -'Well, don't _drop_ your cards as yet,' replied Falconer, coldly. -'Married--you, and who?' - -'Mary and I; it's all arranged, don't you know? Oh, by Jove, here is -luck!' he added, looking for a king, and of course _getting_ one, -while the score was growing heavy against his adversary, and was -close on a hundred now. - -'Hallo, Mr. Montgomerie!' exclaimed Falconer angrily, as Hew stooped -to fish for a dropped card, 'what's the matter?' - -'I have dropped a card, by Jove! and that d----d terrier has collared -it. Here, Snarley, you brute!' - -'You have dropped half-a-dozen, sir!' said Falconer sternly, as he -rose from his chair with menace in his eyes. - -'I have not!' - -'Look for yourself, then.' - -'Where?' - -'Under the table.' - -'By Jove, there _are_ cards there!' said Hew, with well simulated -surprise, as he hastily picked them up; 'but they were never dropped -by me.' - -'By who, then?' - -To gain time, or avoid reply, Hew addressed himself to his brandy and -soda, of which he had imbibed more than enough already. - -'Never again shall I play with you' ('you scoundrel,' Cecil was on -the point of adding); 'and if I do not expose your play to Sir Piers -and the public, it is only because I have a sincere respect for your -family. This is my score,' he continued, taking up a memorandum, -'more than one hundred pounds, which I must have paid you, but for -this most fortunate discovery, which cancels everything!' - -With these words, Falconer tore up the paper and scattered the -fragments, while Hew, unsteady in his movements now, clutched the -back of his chair with both hands, grew very pale in the face, and -literally glared at him with his shifty green eyes. - -'You are mistaken, Mr. Falconer,' he said thickly. - -'I am _not_ mistaken, sir!' - -'Come, come; don't make a d----d row about nothing,' said Hew, -coarsely and bluntly; but as he had no wish, as yet, to push matters -to an extremity with Falconer, or drive him to report the occurrence -to Sir Piers, he alternately sought to explain, temporise with, and -even to bully him, seeking at the same time to retain him in the room -for a little space, and unwired another bottle for his benefit; and -Cecil at first thought he was _acting_ intoxication as a cover, or -excuse, for his recent trickery. - -'We mustn't appear to quarrel, you know,' said he, inarticulately, -while glaring viciously at Falconer. 'Won't do--bad style of -thing--bad form. Keep it dark with Sir Piers,' he added, swaying -about as if his heels were on a pivot; 'a bloated old aristocrat--man -likely to hop his twig! Ah! you thought to draw me like a badger -about Mary, but won't be drawn by you or any man.' - -'Good-night!' cried Cecil, making his escape. - -'Goor-right--goor-right!' said Hew, lunging right and left, and -nearly knocking over the card-table, while sending after his guest a -savage malediction, with an unlit havana in his mouth. - -Thus, at first, through the appearance of Mary's terrier Snarley with -a card in his mouth, Falconer had obtained an insight into the cause -of his own continued losses, and the steady success of Hew -Montgomerie, with whom, of course, he could never play again; and the -knowledge of this, together with the disgrace of being unmasked as a -gambler and cheat, added to the growing hatred that possessed the -other, who did not appear next morning at breakfast, but left a -message with Tunley for Sir Piers, to the effect, that he had gone to -fulfil an engagement, for a few days' shooting at Bickerton's place, -in the adjacent bailiwick of Kyle, and there, doubtless, he would -plot mischief for the time to come. - -'A jolly good riddance!' thought Falconer, as he recalled with -disgust the episode of the last night. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -'THE LOVE THAT TOOK AN EARLY ROOT.' - -Several days had passed now since Cecil Falconer found himself fairly -installed as a guest at Eaglescraig. - -Hew was still absent, and Falconer thought it strange, if he and Mary -were engaged, or lovers in fact, as many a casual remark from Hew had -led him to infer, to the great repression of his own secret hopes, -that the handsome Russia leather despatch-box, which was stamped with -the three _fleurs-de-lis_, and the three annulets of Montgomerie, and -which, with the regularity of clockwork, was brought in at -breakfast-time by Mr. Tunley, never contained an epistle from him to -her. - -Cecil naturally supposed that lovers wrote each other daily; but here -was a pair who never wrote to each other at all! Cecil gathered a -little hope and confidence from the circumstance, till a tormenting -doubt suggested that they might have had a lovers' temporary quarrel. - -The days passed, we say, and in all that time, while almost hourly -enjoying the society of Mary Montgomerie, Falconer had in no way -betrayed the growing emotions of his heart; and though markedly -attentive, there was nothing approaching loverhood in his conduct or -bearing; but it would have been very difficult to convince the absent -and vindictive Hew of that fact, as it was a fixed conviction of his, -that there was more in everything in this world than met the eye, and -that all still waters run deep. - -Cecil's face brightened, and his tone softened more, when addressing -Mary Montgomerie than they did when he was with Miss Erroll, or other -ladies. There were no other signs; but her keener perception and -more subtle instinct told her intuitively that he felt a deeper -interest in her than he had yet avowed; and, though she had many -admirers, the consciousness of this made her heart beat happily, and -gave a little coquetry to her manner, that, when other men were -present, scarcely pleased Falconer, who thought that perhaps she was -only _amusing_ herself with him in the absence of her ungracious -_fiancé_. - -She was quite a sister of charity, Mary Montgomerie, in that part of -the country, and sometimes Cecil drove her pony-carriage on her -missions--a tiny basket carriage, full of gifts for the poor, all of -which were bestowed upon them in a friendly rather than a charitable -way by the softly-eyed chatelaine of Eaglescraig, who loved to -cultivate thus a link, a bond, between the cottage and the great -house; and Falconer, no doubt to please her, never forgot the various -relationships and names of the recipients of her bounty, and -contrived to have always for each man or woman a packet of that -peculiar tobacco which they specially affected; thus he too became a -favourite with them all. He never forgot the joy of these little -drives, in the deep old lanes of Cunninghame, with such a companion -as Mary Montgomerie, nestled together in the tiny pony-carriage, -covered by the ample skin of a dreadful man-eater, whom the general's -gun had brought down in the swampy Terrai of Nepaul, and the -inevitable Snarley coiled up at her pretty feet; drives in the clear, -frosty winter afternoons, when the skies were blue and bright, or -flecked by golden cloud, when the distant hills were capped with -snow, and the smoke of the steamers in the Firth of Clyde towered -straight upward till lost in the pure and ambient air. - -Already they felt quite like old friends, these two; they had a -thousand topics and views in common, and they became perfectly -unconstrained, familiar, and easy with each other--familiar with a -rapidity that surprised themselves. - -Little by little Mary wound her way quickly round the heart of Cecil -Falconer; but dread of her relations with Hew Montgomerie tied up the -tongue of the former more than even the crushing knowledge of his own -meagre exchequer did. - -She soon discovered that sentiment which every young officer -possesses--a pride in his regiment, and drew him out to talk -enthusiastically of its achievements and ancient history, and watched -with pleasure his animated face while he expatiated on a topic so -congenial; though, to her, in reality, the glories of Her Majesty's -Cameronians had been rendered long ago a worn-out household theme by -Sir Piers. - -When Cecil touched her hand, ever so gently, she felt every nerve in -her body thrill with that exquisite sensibility which was a part of -her nature. She saw how his colour changed at times, and _he_ saw -how hers did so too; she felt in her own heart the hesitation that -was in _his_ voice, and, with the quick perception of a young girl, -thought to herself: - -'Can it be that--that he loves me--loves me, and yet dare not say -so?' and then she would think of the sweet love song of Montrose, -about one who 'feared his fate too much.' - -'I know that Cecil Falconer loves me!' she would whisper to Annabelle -Erroll, in the seclusion of their own particular sanctum; 'his eyes, -his voice, and his manner all begin to tell me so. Why does he not -speak out? I wish he had half the fluency and confidence of that oaf -Hew.' - -'But Hew knows the wishes, and is backed by the authority of your -kinsman and guardian, Sir Piers,' replied Annabelle; 'and if any -contretemps occurs--you know----' - -'Well--what then?' - -'It will only be a thousand pities that young Falconer ever found his -way to Eaglescraig at all!' - -There were more of this opinion than the soft, pretty blonde -Annabelle. A curious and subtle change had come over Mary--a change -detected only by Mrs. Garth; as for Hew, he had been too obtuse to -notice it; and over her fair, soft face, when she was alone, or sunk -in reverie, there shone a brighter light than of yore--a happier and -yet more thoughtful expression. - -Whence was this? thought Mrs. Garth. - -'Take care, Mary,' said the old lady one day, when caressingly -folding her to her motherly heart, as she was often wont to do; 'my -little pet-bird, be wary, for your own sake, and all our sakes.' - -'Wary of what?' asked Mary, growing pale as she knew intuitively what -was coming. - -'Need I tell you--of this young Cameronian.' - -'Why, how? fiddlestick! dearest Mrs. Garth; what do you fear?' - -'Only this, you seem to forget the intentions of your grand-uncle, -and the hope that your cousin Hew--for so we may call him--has for -the future.' - -These injunctions and remarks alarmed and irritated Mary; but they -had the effect of rendering her somewhat shy or constrained when with -Falconer. The duets at the piano nearly ceased, then a cold, or a -headache, or some such reason was urged why the drives in the -pony-carriage should also cease, and they were abruptly relinquished. -There was a little change; Falconer felt it and was a little piqued; -he remembered her wealth, and the scene in the avenue, and strove to -crush out of his heart the thoughts he had been cherishing there. -His short term of leave would soon be at an end; but could he go back -to the dull routine of duty with this new secret of his soul untold? - -Even if he won her love, his immediate idea of the future was vague -and shadowy. It seemed to be chiefly the desire to know that she was -his own, and would be so irrevocably; to have the sole right of -caressing, doting upon, and worshipping her; but when marriage and -fortune came to be considered, the deep gulf yawned again between -them, and the cold hardness of practical everyday life jarred -terribly with the soft suggestions of love, tenderness, and romance. - -Should he consult Mrs. Garth, who seemed so kindly disposed towards -him, or should he first seek the consent of Sir Piers? No; he felt -very timid somehow, and shrunk from the too probable crushing -refusal, or biting inquiry as to the settlements he could make, his -family, and so forth; he thought that he would rather try his fate -with Mary herself, and 'put it to the touch to win or lose it all!' - -He was already 'so far gone,' as Fotheringhame would have phrased it, -that his happiness or misery was now simply the question. He made up -his mind, or thought he did so, to declare his love to Mary, and he -passed several hours in flattering, and anon in torturing himself by -putting every imaginable construction on all that had ever passed -between him and her, and between her and Hew, and all that the latter -had said to him, suggested to him, and artfully led him to infer. - -Luncheon--or 'tiffin' as the general always named it--was over, when -one day Cecil, his soul fraught with a declaration, rose to follow -Mary, who had gone into the library to look after the last parcel of -books from Edinburgh; but ere he could join her he was button-holed -by the inevitable general, and the opportunity was lost--perhaps -luckily so--who knows? - -'One glass more of Lafitte ere you leave me, Falconer,' said Sir -Piers; 'are you going to take your gun?' - -'No; I walked too far after the birds yesterday, and have rather -knocked myself up.' - -'You are too young a soldier to say this, Falconer. Knocked up--by -Jove, sir!' exclaimed Sir Piers. 'Precisely this day twenty years -ago I too was knocked up, but it was not by tramping through covers. -It happened thus, you see. We were on the march from the banks of -the Chumbul in Malwah, and the rain was incessant--yes, as if the -windows of heaven were opened again. I was escorting prisoners, with -some native infantry, and had to push on without food or natural -rest, and exposed the while to incessant attacks from the Bheels, a -savage mountain banditti, who practise human sacrifices in secret, -and who were artfully incited to mischief by Holkar; and there was -the very devil to pay when we came to the Chumbul Nullah, a terrible -torrent, swollen by the rains--no rice for the men, no grain for the -horses, which left their shoes, when the nails declined to remain, in -the mud. Heavy firing on all hands, the infernal Bheels with their -matchlocks and jingals, and the elephants, under it all, trying to -carry over the troops; when wounded the brutes became furious, shook -prisoners and escort, soldiers' wives and soldiers' children, -baggage, treasure, and everything out of the howdahs into the foaming -torrent, and a horrible scene ensued--all who got ashore were -massacred, save myself, and I only escaped by a perfect miracle. It -happened this way, you see----' - -How Sir Piers was saved Falconer never learned, for just then he -contrived to make his escape, as Mr. John Balderstone, with a bundle -of legal-looking documents, was announced on important business, and -arrested the attention of the narrator. - -Partly worried by the general's prosy interruption, and thus partly -thwarted in his purpose, Cecil entered the library, unheard by its -occupant; its floor was covered by rare tiger skins, sent home from -India by the general, who had been a mighty hunter there, and had -transmitted home enough of them to stock a bazaar, with their claws -set in gold, as necklaces, ear-rings, and brooches to all the ladies -of his acquaintance. - -After one brief glance at the stately room, with its curtained bay -windows, its walls covered by glittering volumes in splendid oak -cases, its marble busts, easy chairs, and reading tables littered -with papers, periodicals, prints, and drawing materials, Falconer's -eye rested upon Mary Montgomerie, and his heart, full of love though -it was, sank as he gazed--gazed on her in all her rare beauty. - -She stood before the stately fireplace, looking intently into the -bright flame, seeing castles in the embers perhaps, and a sense, -momentarily akin to despair, stole over him; her graceful figure was -so elegantly and richly attired in a costume so perfect in all its -details and ornaments, from the tiny pearl comb that held up the -close silky coils of her dark-brown hair, to the beautifully -embroidered little slipper that rested on the fender--all indicated -the gulf, that, though love might span it, too surely lay between -them--a gulf formed by great wealth, by family and high position on -her side, and by the utter lack of these three important elements on -his own. - -He had followed her here, fraught with a proposal, and now he could -but ask himself, Why had Fate brought him to Eaglescraig? - -She turned suddenly, and welcomed him by a smile, a book in one white -hand, the other resting on the mantelpiece, and he was half -relieved--so unstable was he of purpose--when Annabelle Erroll issued -from the recess of a window, saying: - -'Oh, Mr. Falconer, you are just come here when I wanted you--so -particularly, too.' - -'I am glad of that--in what can I serve you?' - -'By writing your autograph in my "Birthday Book,"' she replied, -producing one of the records with which young ladies are wont to bore -their friends--a handsomely bound little volume--a bijou freak of the -time, wherein a motto from a poet, or a text from Scripture, was -appended to each day of the twelve months. 'What is your birthday?' - -'The fifth of November.' - -'Gunpowder-plot day!' she exclaimed, laughing, as her quick little -hand selected the page. 'Here it is--November 5--St. Bertille's day; -and the motto is, "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full -of trouble."' - -'Scriptural--but rather uncomfortable,' said Falconer, smiling, as he -assumed a pen. - -'Your days have not been days of trouble surely?' said Miss -Montgomerie to him softly. - -'My past days have not been without it,' replied Falconer, as a shade -crossed his handsome face. - -'And your future?' - -'Heaven alone knows that--it depends upon another--not myself,' said -he, with a brief soft glance that made her colour deepen and her -eyelids droop, while he wrote his autograph immediately under that of -Sir Piers, whose natal day was also the 5th--dedicated to the memory -of Guy Fawkes and Inkermann. - -'Cecil!' said Annabelle; 'such a pretty name it is--was it your -father's name too?' - -'No--I am named from my mother, in a way; her name was Cecilia.' - -'How strange?' - -'There is nothing strange in it at all,' rejoined Falconer gravely, -and Mary could perceive that he coloured almost painfully, and the -subject was instantly changed by her; yet it impressed her so much, -that she mentioned the incident to her confidante and constant guide, -old Mrs. Garth. - -'Named from his mother, and he has never been known to mention his -father,' thought Mrs. Garth; 'there is some painful mystery here--and -all mysteries are decidedly unpleasant! I must endeavour to arrest -the progress of this _affair_, for the sake of both, ere it is too -late! But how to do it, with sufficient tact and delicacy?' - -And in this intention she had been further armed by the advice and -opinion of Mr. John Balderstone, an old and valued friend and -adherent of the Eaglescraig family, who had not been unobservant of -the matter in question. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -MRS. GARTH ACTS A FRIENDLY PART. - -Nor was the opportunity she wished for long in coming, in the many -chances afforded by propinquity, and a residence in the same house; -though, in one full of guests, it was difficult to get the object of -her solicitude alone. - -That afternoon, in the drawing-room, Cecil Falconer and Mary were at -the piano; the general preparing for a visit to his stables, as it -was rainy, and none could go far abroad; Annabelle Erroll and a few -other visitors were idling over books of prints, albums, and other -trifles; and Mrs. Garth, observant of the two first-named, with -something of sadness and impatience in her heart, was in her usual -seat near the fireplace, sheltered from the heat by a plate-glass -screen, and knitting busily, for she was always knitting as if her -livelihood depended upon it--but her industry was all devoted to the -comforts of the poor, for she had a kind heart, having known much -suffering 'in her time,' as she was wont to say, and thus was ever -ready, so far as her slender means went, to aid those who were -necessitous, or troubled in any way. - -She was tall and thin in figure, and not without dignity in her -bearing, with a look of calm and patient waiting in her soft and -gentle eyes, which were clear and bright as those of a young girl, -albeit her face was wrinkled and her silky hair was grey. Sometimes -their expression seemed cold and sad, when her thoughts travelled -backward into the past; yet no eyes could laugh in expression more -merrily than hers, at times. - -Like Sir Piers, and most old people, she lived more in the past than -the present, and he, just then, with his feet planted on the -hearthrug, while listening with a pleasant smile to an Italian duet, -of which he did not understand one word, was busy with that most -tantalising of all mental exercises, groping amid vanished years for -some fugitive reminiscence that the face and voice of Cecil Falconer -had summoned up. - -Was it his old comrade Garth he resembled, or who? But Sir Piers had -seen and known so many men in his time, that day-dreams of them were -no cause for marvel. - -'How the time passes!' said he, looking smilingly down on the old -lady; 'yet I can remember you a charming girl, when you joined the -Cameronians, Mrs. Garth; and that was not yesterday!' - -'Well, general,' replied the widow, with a gratified smile on her old -face, 'there were worse-looking girls, I dare say, and I had more -than one offer before I was twenty; but I preferred poor John Garth -to all the world.' - -'And right you were--right you were!' said Sir Piers, emphatically. -'Poor John Garth! I shall never forget his fine conduct on the -morning we stormed the hill-fort of the Nabob All Nazir-jung (or the -victorious in war), as he boasted himself, in the Doab between the -Jhelum and the Chenab. It was a strange affair,' he continued, -relating an anecdote as well known to Mrs. Garth as to himself, yet -to which she listened with a kindling eye, 'we sunk our half-sap by -degrees and pushed it close to the outworks, covering our men by -gabions, sand-bags, and mantelets, and the assault was to take place -an hour before gunfire, or daybreak. I remember how lovely the night -was! A breeze stole up the hillside and stirred the golden bells of -the scented baubul-trees; the moon in her silver glory, like a round -shield, was mirrored in the bosom of the Jhelum, and the stormers -were beginning to creep into the advanced trench, where we could see -their bayonets glittering and their white puggarees behind the shade -of the gabions. Just as Jack Garth and I were having a farewell -cheroot and drain of brandy-pawnee, Drake, of the Bengal Infantry, -who had been detailed to lead the assault, came into our tent looking -pale as a sheeted ghost. - -'Now Drake was no coward, he had been under fire many times in open -ground; but somehow he felt that to lead a forlorn hope was a very -different thing; in short, almost certain death; and having led a -wild, terrible, irregular, and most irreligious life, his whole soul -had suddenly become filled with an uncontrollable dread and dismay of -the impending future. - -'He told us of the strange emotion that possessed him--he seemed -somehow not to care of making a secret of it, to us at least--and -Garth instantly and cheerfully offered to take his place, and Drake -was to join the covering force. The brigadier commanding permitted -the exchange; the place was carried by storm at a wild and headlong -rush; Jack Garth, leading the escalade like a hero, reached the heart -of the fort untouched, while poor Drake, after the affair was deemed -entirely over, and the firing had ceased, was killed by a random shot -that came no one knew precisely from where.' - -By the time the general had ended his anecdote, and betaken him to -the stables to inspect the hock sinews of Mary's favourite pad, of -which Pastern, the groom, had made some evil report, the duet was -over. - -Mrs. Garth had detected the mutual tenderness in tone and expression -of eye as it ended, and when the singers left the piano, she resolved -to lose no time in seeking to avert, if she could, the trouble which -she feared was impending. Not that she loved Hew Montgomerie, but -she thought alone of Mary's interests and the wishes of Sir Piers, -her oldest, kindest, and best of friends. - -But now, when Cecil Falconer approached her, she thought, as Sir -Piers had done more than once: - -'What is there in this young fellow's face that touches, that -interests me? Where have I seen that look before? In India, I doubt -not.' - -'I heard the general's anecdote of your husband, Mrs. Garth, even -while we were singing,' said he, bending over the old lady's chair; -'he must have been a fine old officer, and I can assure you that his -memory is still fresh in the regiment.' - -Her face brightened with genuine pleasure as he said this, and her -eyes filled with tears. - -'You see the relic I wear of him,' said the widow, placing her hand -affectionately upon a brooch she wore on her heart, a silver sphinx, -which had whilom been a regimental ornament, but which she would not -have exchanged for the regal brooch of Lorne; 'and now, if you will -come with me, I shall show you his portrait.' - -'Thanks,' replied Cecil, and a parting glance was exchanged between -him and Mary as he left the room and followed Mrs. Garth across a -corridor, hung, like many other parts of the house, with Indian -trophies of war and the chase. - -Falconer thought he was only to hear about her past and pet memories -of the corps; but he did not foresee that he must hear much more that -he would rather not have heard at all. Nor could he suspect that her -primary object was to get him alone for her own well-meant purpose, -or, as she deemed it, his future peace of mind and the welfare of -Mary Montgomerie. - -'This is my peculiar sanctum, Mr. Falconer,' said she, when ushering -him into a cosily and handsomely-furnished parlour, 'and here I keep -all my relics of the dead and of other times, and have done so since -I found a happy and contented home in Eaglescraig,' she added, -glancing at an old iron-bound baggage-trunk that had been at Bengal, -China, Bermuda, and all round the world with the Cameronians, and at -two regimental swords crossed upon the wall: one the weapon of her -husband, the other that of her son, a joyous boyish ensign, who had -fallen in a vile skirmish with a hill-tribe; shot under the colours, -on a day when match-lock balls were flying thick, and 'human lives -were lavished everywhere.' - -And there now hung the sword that had failed him in the hot hour of -trial. - -Over the old but handsome face of Mrs. Garth, there spread an -expression of sweetness and sadness mingled, as she showed Falconer -the miniatures of her husband and their dead soldier-son; the latter -as an infant, with a lock of his golden hair, which she had worn at -her heart for twenty years and more, treasured, like all his -school-boy letters, in the sad but loving superstition of the heart, -in memory of him and of that day when the troops fell in and he went -with the Cameronians 'to the front,' to be brought back to her across -six muskets, mortally wounded, to die, while calling on her name, -thanking her for her love, and dying with his head upon her breast, -as calmly as he had fallen asleep there when an infant. And so he -died thus, as his father had died but a few weeks before him. - -'The will of God be done!' said Mrs. Garth, in a sorely broken voice; -'for it was His will that I was to lose them, and that they were to -precede me. But Heaven is just, and teaches us that there is a -brighter and a better world than this!' - -Borne away by her own private or personal sympathies, she almost -forgot the purpose for which she had invited Falconer to visit her -little sanctum, till he unwillingly recalled it to her memory; as, -with all his commiseration for her loneliness, he began to tire of -the great many stories she told him of the excellencies of her only -daughter--a girl so amiable and so handsome--who had married a curate -in the West Indies, a good young fellow, who was so and so, and so -and so; of the noble qualities of her son, the poor ensign, and those -of the defunct Captain John Garth, who, 'poor dear soul, had been -dead and gone--dead and gone--deary me, however so many years ago.' -Thus Cecil--though there was certainly a cheerful gossipy quality in -Mrs. Garth, that rendered her a very attractive old lady--ventured to -say: - -'And now, Mrs. Garth, you must excuse me. Miss Montgomerie is -expecting me to attempt that duet over once more with her, ere we -duly perform it for some guests that come this evening. How sweetly -she sings, and with exquisite taste! But, indeed, how perfect she is -in all things!' - -'A dear child! I think you admire her?' began the widow, now -remembering her task, and suddenly making a leading remark. - -'Admire! ah, who could fail to admire her?' exclaimed Falconer -warmly, and with kindling eye. - -'She is a charming girl--ever was a sweet child--and I am so happy -about her future, Mr. Falconer,' said Mrs. Garth, resuming her -knitting, without however raising her eyes to him she addressed. - -'Her future?' - -'With Hew--I mean--you understand me, of course?' - -'Hew?' - -'Yes,' she continued softly and gently, reluctantly, too, for she was -loth to give him pain, 'Hew Montgomerie. In her circumstances, and -with her wealth and its consequent and contingent responsibilities, -it has been with us all an anxious matter, that she should choose -well and wisely in the world of marriage; and thus, with Sir Piers' -heir of entail, she will be the tenth Lady Montgomerie, without -changing her name! Curious that, is it not? It cannot fail to be a -most fortunate alliance; but I shall not intrude upon you, whom we -have only had the pleasure of knowing so recently, these private -family matters.' - -Cecil's heart grew cold as a stone, while he listened and heard Hew's -remarks thus corroborated, by what, Mrs. Garth felt with regret, must -pain him, but deemed it for his future good to hear. - -In reply to some half-muttered inquiry (he could not fashion it as a -congratulation) she, by way of explanation and intended advice, said -distinctly much more than even Hew had done. She told him, in -detail, of Mary's large fortune; and how entirely Mary and it -were--by the tenor of her father's will--at the behest of Sir Piers -Montgomerie, whose great and sole object was to consolidate the -wealth of the family in the person of Hew Caddish Montgomerie, his -heir of entail, who, even with ancient Eaglescraig alone, would not -be rich, and who would be the tenth baronet in succession from Sir -Hew, who had been made one for his loyalty and valour in the battles -of Montrose, particularly at Tippermuir, in 1644; and thus, that even -a duke might lay, in vain, his coronet at the feet of Mary -Montgomerie! - -Pride of birth, and in his own family, of the old line of -Eaglescraig, almost a collateral one with the House of Eglinton, had -been, from youth, a passion with Sir Piers--a passion that had caused -the ruin of his only son--and so on, with an earnest tone, a sad, yet -gentle smile, she continued, for his own good as she supposed, to -plant (warningly) certain daggers in the heart of her hearer. - -'They do not seem much suited to each other, Miss Montgomerie and her -intended,' suggested Falconer in a low voice, after a pause. - -'Ah, so you think--so you think; but when "Love's young dream" and -the honeymoon are over, they will settle down, I have no doubt, into -a very happy, loving, and jog-trot couple.' - -'It is well that you have told me all this in time,' said Falconer, -preserving his calmness of voice and feature by an incredible effort, -for if he had mistrusted Hew he could not mistrust Mrs. Garth, who -could have no selfish or sinister object in view; 'and I am--most -grateful to you.' - -'To me--for what?' asked Mrs. Garth, as if she knew not his meaning, -though she never looked up, but continued to knit nervously and fast, -with tremulous fingers. - -'I was, in fact, beginning to admire the general's ward perhaps too -much,' he replied, with a sickly attempt at a laugh; 'but now I must -think of her only as the intended bride of another.' - -'And learn to laugh over the country-house flirtation.' - -'Does she love Mr. Hew Montgomerie?' - -'I cannot doubt it; though her ways of showing it are certainly shy -and peculiar; but then I see, and have seen, more of him and her than -you have done, Mr. Falconer.' - -'You are sure she will consent to this marriage?' said Cecil, -scarcely knowing what he said. - -'Yes, most assuredly; if not now, at a later period, for there is no -precise reason for haste, unless it be Hew's Indian appointment.' - -A silence ensued for a minute or so, during which Cecil heard only -the click of the knitting-needles and the beating of his heart. - -'Of what are you thinking?' asked Mrs. Garth, looking up with a -smile, and then lowering her eyes again, as the pain she read in his -face distressed her. - -'I am thinking how to collect my ideas,' said he, in a broken voice; -'to reflect on my position, and the information you have given me, -with the useful warning contained in it. In two or three days more -my leave will be up, and I shall have, inexorably, to depart from a -house in which the happiest moments of my life have been spent; yet, -which I would to Heaven I had never entered!' - -Then, as he left her, Mrs. Garth felt that all her suspicions had -been justified; yet, with him, she approached the subject no more. - -'I have done the deed! as Macbeth says,' thought she, looking after -him; 'poor fellow--poor dear fellow! He seems sorely cut up; but it -is all for the best--all for the best! How sad his handsome face -looked: and of _whom_ does that face remind me? My own dear boy's -surely!' - -Cecil Falconer was full of jealous anger and deep mortification. He -could not, in his present mood of mind, rejoin Mary Montgomerie, and -so he took himself to the loneliest part of the garden to smoke and -think--to have that universal panacea to all men in trouble, doubt, -or difficulties--a mild 'weed.' Moreover, there is a solitude we are -prone to seek at times, even amid our fondest affections. - -A tender love for Mary had grown in his heart; but--apart from a -meagre exchequer--his lack of family rank was painfully thrust upon -him now by every word Mrs. Garth had, he thought, unconsciously -uttered. - -In his lonely hours, like most young men of imagination and of those -given to day-dreaming, he had been wont--though well-nigh -nameless--to identify himself with the 'Ivanhoes' of romance and -history--the disinherited and disguised princes of boyish tales, and -so forth, weaving out a brilliant future for himself! But now! - -Now, like Alnaschar in the Arabian tale, his basket of crystal was -smashed; and yet he could have no future in which Mary Montgomerie -was not to bear an imaginary part. - -He was aware that his family pretensions, when judged by the lofty -heraldic and genealogical standards of Sir Piers Montgomerie, were as -meagre as his monetary could be, and the double consciousness -thereof, though failing to influence his heart, had almost utterly -fettered his tongue. - -These were the reasons why Cecil Falconer did not declare himself as -yet, or try conclusions with Hew Montgomerie, but now he had -others--more solid and more cruel. It was, however, the old story of -the moth and the candle. Mrs. Garth had done much to crush and damp -all hope in the heart of Cecil, but could not prevent him from -indulging in the perilous charm of Mary's society to the last hours -of his now-expiring leave of absence--leave granted 'between -returns,' as the technical phrase is. - -So that night the duet was not sung, greatly to Mrs. Garth's -satisfaction, and somewhat to the surprise and disappointment of Mary -Montgomerie, to whom Cecil urged that he was afflicted by a sudden -cold, a hoarseness and so forth; so to his seductive tenor she was -unable to make the usually tender soprano replies. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -A CRISIS. - -Hew returned suddenly from Bickerton--Hew of the shifty eyes and -cold, fish-like hands--more indignant than ever with 'Old Pipeclay,' -as he irreverently called Sir Piers. - -Old Mr. John Balderstone, the family factor, who had been enjoying -some shooting at the Bickerton covers, had incidentally and -laughingly mentioned having seen Cecil Falconer and Mary Montgomerie -twice in her pony-carriage at a considerable distance from home; and -thus Hew had returned full of ire at the folly of Sir Piers in having -'invited that fellow to Eaglescraig,' at the presumption of the -latter, and with his heart full of secret rage, jealousy, and no -little rancour for the result of the last game at écarté. - -Before this time, Cecil perhaps cared little what Hew said or thought -of his manner with Mary Montgomerie, so far as friendly intercourse -went. Thus Hew had more than once seen him bending caressingly over -Mary as he addressed her, bending till his dark-brown moustache -almost touched her darker glossy hair. But then, his whole manner to -her might be described as one long caress, though he was ever -courteous to all women, even the old and plain-looking; while Mary -thought it new and charming, and something that even in society she -was unused to. - -But now there was a sudden change. The result of Mrs. Garth's -friendly advice was, that doubt, reserve, and smothered -irritation--born of a suspicion that he had been trifled with, or -played with--tinged the manner of Cecil Falconer, infusing therein a -peculiar strangeness that piqued Mary Montgomerie, and made their -intercourse more perilous, for, being somewhat of a little coquette, -it was one of her idiosyncrasies, when so piqued, to avoid a -reconciliation that was too openly affected, and shyly, or slyly, to -take refuge in those which were merely, and silently, implied. - -The communications of the old lady had forced upon him the necessity -for sedulously seeking to forget, as soon as possible, the existence -of Mary; and how far such an effort was consistent with spending the -hours of every day in her society, may be imagined. - -In the first fever of his spirit he felt inclined to quit Eaglescraig -at once, ere his leave was up, and to get Fotheringhame to telegraph -for him; but anon he resolved to linger till the last moment, and sun -himself in the eyes of Mary; and in the midst of all this Hew now -returned, like the shadow of evil, to Eaglescraig, suddenly, and not -finding either Mary or Cecil in the house, had his spleen further -roused on being told by the watchful Mrs. Garth, that they were -rambling somewhere in the grounds together. - -'In the grounds,' said Hew, viciously; 'where?' - -'I know not,' replied Mrs. Garth; 'but if you will absent yourself -shooting here and there, Mary must avail herself of the courtesy of -others.' - -'Of course--to help her to water her ferns, which she does -indefatigably, although a staff of gardeners are kept here at -Eaglescraig.' - -'And to feed her favourite pigeons at the dovecot.' - -'How touchingly domestic; how d----d Arcadian!' said Hew, more -viciously than ever. 'Are they on the lawn?' - -'No; I think they took the path that leads to the grotto,' replied -Mrs. Garth, not unwilling to pique the jealousy of Hew, who muttered -an ugly word, and at once left the house to seek them in their ramble. - -For this circumstance Sir Piers was in some measure to blame, as he -had desired Mary to show Falconer a curious grotto, or cavern, partly -natural and partly artificial, under the old tower of Eaglescraig, in -which tradition said some centuries ago, when the wall which had -concealed it fell, a so-called magic lamp had been discovered hanging -from a chain in the rocky roof. The flame, when first seen, was -thought to be a Jack-o'-lantern, but was found to proceed from what -was supposed to be an ancient sepulchral lamp, prepared with matter -spontaneously combustible on the accession of air, and which, instead -of burning for centuries, had only taken light when the grotto was -opened. - -Be all that as it may, neither Cecil nor Mary troubled themselves -much about the archæology of the place, though they certainly -lingered there, they scarcely knew why, and she clung to his arm, for -the mouth of the grotto opened inwards from the rock on which the -mansion stood, and overlooked the Firth of Clyde, three hundred feet -below. - -Alone with Mary there, Cecil felt that he was becoming more devoted -and _empressé_ every moment, in spite of his recent resolutions and -the warnings of Mrs. Garth. - -Their conversation was somewhat disjointed and desultory, especially -so far as Cecil was concerned; for the eve of his departure was -drawing near; he knew not when, or if ever, he might see Mary -Montgomerie again, and the great secret of his heart loaded his -tongue. But the faltering accents and broken language of love are -generally expressions of the fullest eloquence to her who hears them; -and now, filled by all the charm her presence inspired, while gazing -into her face which had all the soul-like beauty that radiates from -_within_, Cecil Falconer felt his heart flying to his head, and while -pressing to his side the little hand that leant upon his arm, he said: - -'Another day--only one short day more--and this time of joy, so sweet -to me, will have become a thing of the past--a dream--but a past -never to be forgotten!' - -'I am glad that you have been happy with us--we live so quietly here -at Eaglescraig,' she replied, affecting to misunderstand what he so -evidently referred to. - -'Happy indeed! But who could fail to be happy here? I am much of a -day-dreamer, Miss Montgomerie, and often it has seemed to me, in my -solitary moments and thoughtful moods, that some mysterious sympathy -or bond was linking my existence with that of another, but who that -other was I knew not.' - -'A strange idea!' - -'You will smile at my folly, as you no doubt deem it. So, too, have -I thought there was something singularly sweet in the idea, but -sweeter still now that I know, the soul that I dreamed of was you.' - -Mary's hand trembled on his arm, but she made no reply, and stood -with half-averted face. - -'My lips have been silent,' he resumed, bending over her, as she -still further averted her face and looked down; 'yet you must have -guessed the cherished hope of my heart, and learned, even from my -glance--that I--that--that I love you!' - -So Mrs. Garth's friendly warnings all came to nothing, and even Hew's -existence was forgotten! - -'I saw from the first,' said Mary, in a low and agitated voice, 'from -the first, that you admired me, but--but, I never thought that----' - -'That I loved you?' - -'I know not what I thought.' - -'Oh, Mary--may I call you so?--I have no words to tell you, Mary, -darling, how fondly, how deeply and tenderly I love you!' - -Her hands were in his now, and her long lashes were cast down, during -a little pause that ensued, and he could see her soft bosom heaving -under her dress. - -Then she looked up with a coy, shy smile of great brightness, as she -asked: - -'Am I the first you have loved--the very first?' - -'Fancies I have had--as what lad has not--but I never loved till now, -Mary,' he replied, with great tenderness, 'unless it was the love I -bore my poor mother, who is now in her grave.' - -'I am so confused--so startled, Mr. Falconer.' - -'Do say "Cecil," I implore you!' - -'Well, then--Cecil.' - -No need to say more just then, as their lips met, passionately for an -instant, and Cecil felt that she was his own. Then Mary shrank back -a little, and blushing deeply, said: - -'Oh, what would Sir Piers say if he knew of this?' - -There was something of terror in her tone--alarm, at least, as Cecil -thought. - -'When I tell him of my love for you----' he began. - -'Oh, that you must not--must not do--yet awhile, at least!' she -exclaimed earnestly. - -'Why, my darling?' - -'Don't ask me--do not ask me! Be content that--that----' - -'You love me?' - -'Oh, Cecil--yes. But your love for me--when did it first begin?' she -asked, looking up with the same fond yet shy smile again on her soft -face. - -'Heaven only knows--when I first saw you, without a doubt,' replied -Falconer, drawing her towards him. 'But now tell me, darling----' - -Ere he could say more, she shrank from him. A step was heard on the -gravelled path, Snarley growled and showed his teeth, and Hew -appeared close by them, at the mouth of the grotto--Hew, with a very -dubious and mingled expression on his face. - -'Have you not heard the gong sound for luncheon?' he asked, curtly -and sulkily. - -'Hew--returned already!' said Mary, blushing deeply. - -'So soon--yes,' said he. - -'Had good shooting at Bickerton?' asked Cecil Falconer, feeling that -it required a double effort to be complaisant to Hew just then, and -to slide into the commonplaces required by society. - -'Pretty fairish--knocked over a few rocketters or so. There were ten -guns out. But how do you two come to be here?' he asked bluntly and -almost rudely. - -'Sir Piers requested Miss Montgomerie to show me where an ancient -lamp had been found,' replied Cecil, with some annoyance of manner. - -Hew muttered something unpleasant under his moustache, as he thought -that the 'ancient lamp' had thrown more light on their proceedings -than he anticipated, and drawing Mary's arm through his own, he said -sharply and curtly: - -'Let us go back to the house, or we shall be late.' - -Cecil's handsome mouth was compressed with sternness at the -abruptness of Hew's bearing, tone, and words. His small and well-cut -nostrils quivered, and his eyes flashed with the anger which, despite -his recent joy, he felt a difficulty in restraining. - -Hew was sharp enough to see this; but feeling himself somewhat master -of the situation, and a species of marplot, he gave one of his -strange smiles, and said something that might mean anything or -nothing, as he appropriated Mary and marched off with her towards the -house. - -How long he might have been eavesdropping, and how much or how little -of their conversation he might have overheard, or what he might have -overseen, it was impossible for them to conjecture; but extreme -annoyance clouded the fair face of Mary, and bitter chagrin was but -ill concealed in that of Falconer. - -'Pray do not quarrel with Hew,' Mary found opportunity to say in a -rapid whisper; 'you know not his power in the art of scheming, -manœuvring, and mischief.' - -Cecil felt his heart beat lightly again at the interest in him -implied by her words, and the secret understanding they suggested and -created. - -Though we doubt very much if Mr. Hew Caddish Montgomerie ever heard -of the Bard of Twickenhem, yet we are certain that he believed with -him, that 'every woman is at heart a rake;' and thus he was the more -irate with Mary, as he was prone to take the worst view of every one -and everything. - -As they pursued the circuitous path that led from the grotto to the -house, Hew maintained a somewhat sulky silence, as he had neither the -good feeling nor the good taste to conceal his annoyance. He, -perhaps, loved Mary; but if so, it was after a selfish fashion of his -own, and as much as it was in him to love anyone. He knew her -fortune to a shilling; he had a passionate, an inherited, and -avaricious love of wealth, and he knew right well the vast importance -that attached to the possession of it; thus he took Mary to task, the -moment Falconer left them--with a glance, which Mary read, though to -Hew it was all unseen, or misunderstood. - -'Were you and that fellow long in the grounds to-day?' he asked -bluntly, and with anger in his eyes. - -'What if we were?' was the defiant reply. - -'I asked you a question, cousin.' - -'One you have no right to ask.' - -'No right?' - -'None!' said she, with decision. - -'Come, I like that! I am your cousin.' - -'Nothing more, thank goodness!--and scarcely even that, save by name; -and you are not my mentor.' - -'If I were so----' - -'Well, sir; if you were?' - -'I should say that I was extremely sorry to meet you and Falconer -together, as I met you just now. I consider it most unseemly!' - -'Are you my guardian, Hew?' asked the little beauty, with growing -irritation. - -'Would that I were so, legally!' - -'I cannot agree with you,' responded Mary, with a merry laugh. - -'I regret to see how this intimacy has grown between you and an utter -stranger.' - -'Pray what can it matter to you who my gentlemen friends are?' - -'How can you adopt this tone to me, knowing what you do of Sir Piers' -intentions, Mary? As for this fellow----' - -'Fellow? What has he done to offend you, Hew Montgomerie, that you -speak of him in this style?' - -'I was only about to remark that, like Oliver Twist, I have no doubt -that he can trace his genealogy all the way back to his parents--to -his mother, at least, for I suppose he has, or had, such a relative,' -was the coarse and bitter sneer of Hew; 'but that measure of ancestry -will scarcely suit the standard of Sir Piers Montgomerie.' - -Mary remembered the little episode of the 'Birthday Book,' and her -heart for a moment sank, and her countenance fell. - -'What _do_ you mean?' she asked. - -'I know--what I know--that is all,' replied Hew, malevolently. - -'And I know that you are extremely rude and ill-bred,' said Mary, as -she swept away from him, and with difficulty restrained her tears, -while Hew looked after her with a scowl that was strangely mingled -with a triumphant smile. - -He did not knit his eyebrows, for he had little or nothing in that -way to knit; but his closely-set eyes twinkled viciously and -furtively, as he began to feel that the power he once possessed, or -hoped to possess, over Mary, and more especially over her fortune, -was slipping away; and the emotions of wounded pride, disappointment, -avarice, and an odious passion for her that was not love, grew keenly -and stingingly in his heart. - -Next day Cecil's leave would be up, and in the interval, so -sedulously did Hew keep guard, that never again had Cecil a chance of -addressing Mary alone; but the rival, while thus employed, could see -with growing rancour that they looked suspiciously amiable and happy, -and could talk confidentially enough with their eyes, if prevented -from doing so with their tongues; and now, to preclude any fresh -invitations on the general's part, or any further extension of the -hospitality of Eaglescraig, Hew resolved, ere their guest departed, -to do him all the mischief he could with his host. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -HEW MAKES MISCHIEF. - -Finding, as we have shown, that any appeal to Mary Montgomerie was -vain, Hew determined, as he muttered, to give the general 'an -eye-opener on the subject.' - -He knew that 'a jilted suitor is hopelessly and irreparably -ridiculous, and that the jilt is apt to score the honours.' Without -an engagement existing between them, there could be no jilting in the -case of him and Mary, but in his blind, unmeaning hate of Falconer, -his jealousy and avarice, he never thought of that; and only -considered that the wishes of Sir Piers and himself, and the object -for which he had been deliberately brought home from India, were on -the point of being baffled, or set utterly aside, by the intervention -of an unexpected interloper, to blacken and defeat whom was but just -and right, he deemed on his own part, and in his own behalf. - -Without a just cause he had been from the first instinctively the foe -of Cecil Falconer; and ill-founded enmities, it is said, are ever the -most obstinate and bitter. - -He found Sir Piers in the library, lounging in an easy-chair, smoking -a beautiful hookah which he had brought with him from India, and deep -in the pages of the _Field_. - -'Can I have your attention for a little time, Sir Piers?' he asked. - -'Yes, my boy; fire away. About what do you wish to speak?' - -'A subject very near my heart, as you know,' replied Hew, leaning on -the back of the old baronet's chair: 'Mary Montgomerie.' - -'God bless the dear girl!' exclaimed Sir Piers, as his brightening -eyes were raised inquiringly to Hew's face. 'It is time some -arrangement were made by you and her; for Mary deserves the purest -and best love the heart of man can offer her.' - -'Such love is mine, dear Sir Piers,' whined Hew. - -'I hope so.' - -'But I come not to speak of that.' - -'Of what, then?' - -'Of Mary and your new friend, Falconer.' - -'Falconer!' exclaimed Sir Piers, staring blankly at Hew through his -gold eyeglasses. - -'Seriously, sir, it seems to me that, thanks to the propinquity your -unwise hospitality has afforded them, Mary is drifting, with that -fellow Falconer, the way that many other young ladies have drifted -before her.' - -'What does this mean?' exclaimed Sir Piers, wheeling his chair -sharply round. 'Worry, of course; and, d--n it! I am getting too -old to have any worry--had enough of it in my time, up country! Has -propinquity not helped you? Gad, sir, in my day, I should like to -have seen the biped that could turn my flank with any girl; but why -the devil don't you push the trenches yourself?' - -'But don't you think they have become too intimate?' asked Hew, with -growing irritation. - -'Why? How?' - -'With all this singing, music, and philandering.' - -'Pooh! not at all. Let them amuse themselves. I was once their age. -It is no use making a fuss; but why the deuce don't you cut in, and -sing, play, and philander too, as you call it? Besides, Falconer in -a few hours now returns to Dumbarton, or to headquarters, and there -is an end of it all! To me, Hew, it seems natural enough that young -Falconer should be attracted by our Mary; but aware of her position, -of my views and your wishes, and more than all, your prospects and -rank when I am gone,' he added, glancing at a portrait of his dead -son, 'I should very much doubt if she encouraged any particular -attention on his part.' - -'There I don't agree with you; and when once a girl's heart becomes -warped, or interested in a fellow, she cares little what his rank or -position may be; and of this Falconer's family or antecedents we know -nothing.' - -'True, by Jove!' said Sir Piers, whose pet weakness was now -interested. 'He seemed not to know, himself, which I thought odd. I -wonder what arms he uses? The Halkertoun family carried azure, a -falcon _argent_ crowned with a ducal crown.' - -'Arms!' said Hew, with a mocking laugh. 'If all I suspect be true, -his have been quartered and attested by the Blue Bottle Herald and -Pimlico Pursuivant. But apart from his dangling after Mary, I have -my own reasons for feeling glad that Eaglescraig will soon be rid of -him.' - -'He is a presentable young fellow--a Cameronian too, and bears her -Majesty's commission,' urged Sir Piers in favour of Falconer, whom he -really liked; 'but what are the personal reasons you refer to?' - -'Because in a little time he would have rooked--ruined me!' - -'How?' - -'At écarté.' - -'At écarté?' - -'Yes. Before I went to Bickerton--to keep out of his way, in -fact--he inveigled me to play, night after night, when all others had -retired. My play is always mild--but his was _wild_! His constant -phrase was that it was so _ennuyant_ to play for low stakes, so we -always doubled, and even trebled, them--I always losing.' - -'Why?' - -'Because,' replied Hew, deliberately, while a malevolent gleam shot -from his parti-coloured eyes, 'it is seldom safe to play écarté, or -piquet either, after dinner, and when drinking brandy-and-soda with a -fellow who takes nothing--is too wary to do so.' - -'And so you have lost?' said Sir Piers, flushing with indignation. - -'Fearfully; and I suspect the scoundrel was in the habit of dropping -his cards.' - -'What!' roared Sir Piers, aghast. 'The devil! Do you say so?' He -pinched his gold eyeglasses tighter on his high aristocratic nose, -and absolutely glared through them at Hew, as he turned his keen face -full round to await what he had to say, and with a face expressive of -intense chagrin, disappointment, and dismay. - -'I do not say so--I only suspect,' said Hew, afraid that he, in the -extremity of his malice, had roused a storm it might be difficult to -quell, or see the end of. - -'And he is one of the Cameronians!' exclaimed Sir Piers, in an -agitated voice. 'Gad! in my time, he would have had his hands tied -behind his back, and been drummed to the barrack-gate. Do you -actually tell me this? Gambling, in camp or quarters, _I_ never -permitted for a moment--they are strictly forbidden by the -thirty-fourth paragraph of the sixth section of the Queen's -Regulations. But the idea of gambling and cheating at Eaglescraig! -D--me, I'll explode! I remember that, when we were cantoned at -Jubbulpore, before we were relieved by the Seventy-Eighth, with bag, -baggage, and twelve bagpipes----' - -'But our play is ended now, Sir Piers--once and for ever!' -interrupted Hew, as he shivered at the idea of an Indian anecdote, -which was certain to follow whenever Sir Piers mounted his Oriental -hobby-horse. - -'Ended; I should think so! But, as we used to say in India, beware -of a black Brahmin and a white pariah!' - -The point of this aphorism was not very apparent; but Hew, satisfied -that he had now completely ruined Cecil Falconer so far as Sir Piers -was concerned, was so well pleased that he listened to a sudden -Bengal narrative of a thirty days' march, amid the horrors of Dacoits -and Thugs, swamps and jungles, tigers and snakes, dismounted guns and -broken bones, dead bullocks and swollen rivers; and then, after a -pause, during which the baronet had been reflecting with knitted -brows, he said: - -'But to return to the first subject, Hew. Do you mean to tell me, -and do you seriously think, that this--a--a--person, has made any -undue impression upon her--upon Mary?' - -'From my soul I do, sir, and know it to my bitter cost!' - -Another angry malediction escaped the general. - -'I cannot desire him to leave my house, though right well disposed to -do so,' said he; 'but a little time will see him gone now, thank -Heaven! I am deeply concerned by what you tell me, my dear Hew; all -the more so, that I have been the unwitting means of bringing all -this unforeseen mischief to pass.' - -'Only an hour ago I interrupted a little scene in the grotto there -could be no mistaking! He was bending tenderly over her, and -uttering sighs that would have softened the heart of a pawnbroker.' - -'Don't use such odious similes, Hew!' exclaimed Sir Piers. 'Whatever -may be the personal merits or demerits of this young man,' he -continued, with an angry laugh, 'apart from my firm intentions, your -wishes, and Mary's own future welfare, it would never do for her to -make a _mésalliance_--to throw herself away upon an ambitious -adventurer, on whose name there too evidently rests the stain of -obscurity, at least. It is well that he is going, Hew! I want no -other catastrophe, no second fiasco, to occur to a Montgomerie of -Eaglescraig!' he added, with deep and sorrowful frown, as he referred -to a family episode we shall have to relate ere long. 'But here -comes Mary, most opportunely. Leave us, Hew, and I shall talk with -her alone.' - -As Hew retired, with disappointed passion and gratified revenge -curiously mingled in his face, the thought flashed upon the mind of -Sir Piers that expostulation or advice might only prove futile, and, -by exciting opposition, make the matter worse (as he had bitterly -experienced once before in his life), though he knew not how far the -matter had gone, or how deeply love had taken root in the hearts of -both Mary and Falconer. Moreover, he thought that as separation, -which he deemed a safe cure, was so close at hand, it might be better -to ignore the communications of Hew, and let matters, after -Falconer's departure, fall into their old routine, yet having the -intended marriage of Mary and his heir pressed forward, in spite of -all opposition; but now, the sudden and apparently opportune entrance -of the fair culprit herself overset his calmer calculations. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -CECIL'S DEPARTURE. - -Though indignant at Falconer, Sir Piers could scarcely find it in his -heart to be angry with Mary, she was so sweet and winning--his dead -kinsman's one ewe lamb, committed to his care. She had been to him -as the child of his old age, taking the place of that only son whose -death he had never ceased to lament; she, who by her affection, in -the thousand nameless little recurring trifles of life, as a tender -and loving daughter rather than a grand-niece, had made herself so -useful and necessary to him. - -Mary had come in search of a book, a passage in which she meant to -show Cecil, whom she had left with Annabelle Erroll, when Sir Piers -summoned her to his side; and though she saw a gloom on his fine old -face, the cause of which she dreaded and suspected to have been Hew, -who had just quitted the room, she seated herself on a velvet -tabouret, near her guardian's own chair, and nestling at his knee as -she had been wont to do when a little girl, she drew one of his -shrivelled hands caressingly over her handsome head, and, looking up -smilingly, said: - -'Well, grand-uncle darling, what have you to say to me?' - -'Much, Mary--yet a few words may suffice,' he replied, as the lines -faded out of his face. He had at first resolved to be very stern and -irate with her; but he reserved all his bitterness for Falconer. 'Am -I right when I say that I have been given to understand that Mr. -Falconer has forgotten his place as a guest in my house, and dared to -address you surreptitiously in language other than a mere friend or -guest may do?' - -At this question, so sententiously put, Mary blushed painfully, and -then grew very pale indeed, for her heart was yet vibrating with its -new-found joy, and the memory of that kiss, the first that was ever -given her by any man save old Sir Piers himself. - -'Has he attempted to win for himself that affection which should -belong to another?' - -'Oh, grand-uncle, what do you mean?' asked Mary piteously, and -feeling quite overwhelmed. - -'What I ask, Mary; and I wish you to know, further, that he is every -way unworthy the consideration of any girl--wholly unworthy the -kindness I have wasted on him.' - -'Unworthy!' repeated Mary, faintly; and yet her heart rebelled, for -she now recognised the malevolent influence of Hew. - -'I have other views for your future, as you know, dear Mary--views -long cherished and most dear to me, and I am not going to have my -plans and prospects marred by a fortune-hunting subaltern and a -romantic girl's folly. Understand me, Mary, and the power your -father's will has given me over you and your fortune.' - -Mary remained silent, but tears welled up in her eyes--tears that -sprang from emotions of anger as much as annoyance and intense -mortification. - -'I don't object to the fellow because he is a subaltern, with little, -if anything, more than his pay,' said Sir Piers, as if ashamed of -using the military rank as an adjective; 'but I do object to this, -Mary, as your guardian and only kinsman, in whose hands the whole of -your fortune is vested, to bestow, so far as possible, on my heir of -entail, who is to share it with you. But here, if all I am told is -true, you have been tempted--you, with beauty and attractions that -might win a coronet--you, with an inheritance, and certainly with a -name, second to none in Scotland--to cast your lot, perhaps, with one -destitute of position, save that which a commission gives him--one -without family or friends either, so far as we know,' continued the -general, musing, or talking himself into a fit of anger; 'as Hew has -hinted, the first of his race--a gambler, too----' - -'A gambler, grand-uncle?' - -'A gambler--and worse--who has sorely fleeced poor Hew! But I shall -amply reimburse him, as it was by my old-fashioned folly our unlucky -guest came here. How I shall be able to receive him at dinner to-day -I scarcely know, for now I consider his presence in Eaglescraig an -insult. You may have been foolish--girlish, Mary; but I know that -you won't further vex your old grand-uncle, who loves you so, but -will sedulously avoid or shun this person, Falconer, during the few -hours he is under our roof: and when he leaves it let his existence -be to you as a thing of the past--as that of the dead--but the dead -who are forgotten!' - -And with this cruel advice, which was all the more cruel and -impressive from being coolly, calmly, and deliberately given, the -general rose and quitted the library, leaving Mary in a flood of -tears and quite overwhelmed with dismay; not at the invectives -bestowed upon Falconer, as she knew their source and true value, but -at the hostility so suddenly developed by Sir Piers, and the long -term of domestic misery she saw before her in the future. - -But, as indignation swelled in her heart against Hew, she dried her -tears and gathered a courage from her growing anger. Yet she drew -her breath with difficulty, and pressed a hand upon her side as if a -pang of pain was there. - -Unaware of all this scene, Falconer, even in the face of his -approaching departure, was chatting away gaily with Annabelle Erroll, -and having the full assurance of Mary's love, seemed to tread on air, -and feel emotions only of gratitude and joy. He was as sure that -Mary was not a girl to love lightly as he was sure that she had given -her whole heart to him, despite the fiat, the 'general order' of Sir -Piers, that was to assign her as a bride to Hew Montgomerie. - -When the little circle assembled for dinner, the last of which he was -to partake in Eaglescraig, Cecil became suddenly and painfully -sensible that some change had come over all present, save Miss Erroll. - -Though all were scrupulously polite, their old cordiality seemed to -have evaporated! - -Hew was colder than ever; not that Cecil Falconer cared much for -that, but he felt that the usually chatty and genial Sir Piers was -cold in manner too, and haughty and monosyllabic, for a time; and -Cecil recalled the cordial welcome of his first night in that -hospitable mansion, when his old host insisted on escorting him to -'his quarters,' as he called his room, singing his old Indian song -about 'half-batta' as they went. He felt the change keenly, and -angrily too, all the more that he failed to understand it. - -'What the deuce does the general suspect--what does he know?' thought -Cecil, whose own suspicions certainly pointed towards Hew; but he and -Mary were without the means of comparing notes together, or even of -taking of each other the tender farewell they would have wished. - -At table--with the memory of all that had passed in the library--she -was nervous, silent and reserved, while she kept listening to the -voice and looking furtively in the eyes that as secretly sought -hers--the voice and eyes she had been bidden to forget as those of -'the forgotten dead.' - -When the ladies withdrew, the general, who was the soul of -hospitality, when pushing the decanters round--for he was vain of his -clarets, Chateau Lafitte, Haut Brion, and Margaux--felt half inclined -to relax and relent at times. Could Hew have been mistaken in that -diabolical story about the cards? But if so, he was not mistaken on -the subject of Falconer's admiration of his intended wife: and though -such was utterly adverse to the wish of Sir Piers, he felt that he -could forgive it, especially as, like Mrs. Garth, he felt that in the -look and air, the expression of face, and bearing of Cecil Falconer, -there were an undefinable something that brought painfully back to -memory the face of another; and yet, between the two faces, that of -his dead son--for his it was--and the face of Falconer, there was no -especial likeness. - -'Had poor Piers been living now, thought the general, 'he would have -been nearly fifty years of age, which reminds me that I am getting -too old to harbour thoughts of anger now.' - -In the drawing-room, Cecil found the piano closed; there was -evidently to be no music that evening, nor was he in the mood for it, -except in so far that it might have served to cloak a few farewell -words to Mary, whom he found occupied at chess with Mrs. Garth, and -save that she trembled a little and changed colour at his entrance, -she seemed unconscious of his presence, as the slow and silent game -proceeded in its tedium: and leaving Sir Piers and Hew deep in some -matter of local improvements to be made on a certain farm, he seated -himself beside Miss Erroll, on an ottoman, a little way apart. - -'And so you indeed go to-morrow?' she observed, for lack of something -else to say apparently. - -'Inexorably, Miss Erroll,' he replied, with a smile that was no smile -at all; 'and after all the happiness I have enjoyed here I shall feel -doubly lonely at Dumbarton, as it is most probable that the general -may invite my brother officer here, to take my place.' - -'Mr. Leslie Fotheringhame?' she said in a low voice, while her eyes -drooped. - -'Yes.' - -'What leads you to think so?' she asked, with a little agitation of -manner that Cecil could not fail to detect. - -'He has once or twice said such was his intention.' - -Such, indeed, had been the general's wish, but recent events had made -him change his mind. - -Miss Erroll was a singularly attractive and bright-looking -girl--bright in her manner and blonde beauty. Her fair, golden hair -rippled back from her broad, low, snowy forehead; and she had a -tender, rosebud-like mouth, and very lovely eyes. In the full -preoccupation of his thoughts with Mary, Cecil Falconer had not been -quite conscious that on several occasions Miss Erroll had led him to -talk of his solitary friend at Dumbarton, Leslie Fotheringhame, as if -she had some interest in him; and also, that if he attempted to -question her on the subject, she skilfully or nervously changed it, -or evaded it. - -'You know Fotheringhame, it would seem?' he asked. - -'I do--or _did_, rather,' she replied, in a low voice. - -This implied that there had been a coolness, a quarrel, or a dropping -of acquaintance somehow. - -'He was not always in the Cameronians,' said Falconer. - -'I am aware of that.' - -'Perhaps you knew him when in his former regiment?' - -'When in his former regiment--yes,' she replied, repeating his words, -as if afraid to trust herself to any of her own. 'How long will Mary -puzzle over her king?--she is quite checkmated!' she said with a -forced laugh, as she moved towards the chess-table, to conceal from -Falconer an expression of genuine pain that shot over her soft, fair -face. - -He noticed now an unmistakable agitation of manner and sudden sadness -of eye and tone in Annabelle Erroll; and though he almost immediately -forgot this amid the anxiety of his own love affair, he remembered it -all at a future time. - -The brief evening that followed the late and fashionable dinner-hour -passed rapidly--too rapidly for Cecil; yet heavily withal. The -evening was so unlike its predecessors, for the once pleasant circle -seemed entirely changed. How Falconer's heart would have swollen -with just rage had he known the reason why! - -And this was his last night at Eaglescraig; it seemed as if he was -looking on everything there for the last time, Mary's pale face -included, and the time came at last when he had to say to her: - -'Good-night, and good-bye, Miss Montgomerie. - -Yet Fate was not so cruel as to make them part thus, for through a -skilful manœuvre executed by Miss Erroll--in compelling Hew to -hold a folio book of Indian photographs while the general explained -to her something therein--as Mary gave Cecil her hand, 'her soft, -white virgin hand, that had never touched aught to soil or harden -it,' he whispered hurriedly, and unheard by all save her: - -'Good-bye. Oh, my darling, my own Mary! How am I to live without -you, how make the time pass till we meet again--if ever?' - -And eye conveyed to eye and heart, a world that was alike unsaid and -unseen. - -Courtesy compelled him to shake the damp, limp hand of Hew, and the -shifty eyes of the latter looked radiant with malevolence and triumph. - - -Grey dawn was breaking, and save Mr. Tunley, the butler, and a sleepy -valet, all the household were sunk in slumber, when Falconer, after -an almost sleepless night, and feeling as if it must be some other -person and not himself that was about to depart, got into the -dog-cart with his portmanteaus and gun-case. - -A cold, chilly morning, the last day of January. The crocus formed a -golden band along the parterres of the terrace; a few snow-flakes -came aslant the dull grey sky, and the robin redbreast, his little -heart filled at least with hope, twittered and sung on the bare -spray, where the first buds of spring would soon be bursting. All -around the landscape looked dank and barren and dreary--unusually so -it seemed to Cecil's eye. - -Pate Pastern, a groom, drove the dog-cart. Hew had again flatly -declined to do so, saying overnight to Sir Piers that he 'didn't care -to drive a fellow like Falconer, a fellow so devilish sharp at cards, -and all that sort of thing, you know;' and the general had said -approvingly: - -'Of course not, of course not, my dear boy.' - -Cecil's mind was a prey to great bitterness in the conviction that he -was leaving Eaglescraig, as it seemed, for ever, and with no definite -plans, views, or hopes for the future. Was all this new love, this -new joy, to pass out of his life and out of hers as suddenly as it -had come to them? - -It seemed so! - -He had, he thought, done wrong in winning the heart of Mary -Montgomerie without the permission of her proud old guardian and -kinsman; but now he had little compunction for having done so, as -that permission would never have been accorded to him, and he felt -that his departure seemed a welcome move to all but her--a departure -permitted to pass coldly, and without even a well-bred expression of -regret. - -A farewell glance at the stately modern villa, and the grim old keep -that towered behind it, showed him their walls all reddened in the -early morning sun; the window-blinds close drawn, all closed as yet, -save one. His heart told him it was that of Mary's room. The sash -remained, of course, unlifted, but the blue silk curtain was -festooned back, and every pulse vibrated within him when he saw the -wave of a white handkerchief, just as the dog-cart went bowling down -the wooded avenue towards the highway. - -It was Mary's farewell to him. - -Would the strains of the sweet old story, that never tires, come to -their ears again? How would it all end between him and Mary -Montgomerie, or was it ended now? - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -IN SHADOW LAND. - -'I am truly glad for Hew's sake, and for Mary's sake, that he has -gone--gone ere it was too late!' thought Sir Piers, as he sat in his -easy-chair in the library that afternoon, when nothing remained of -Cecil Falconer at Eaglescraig but an aching pain in Mary's heart, and -in the avenue the ruts of the wheels that had borne him away. - -His recent conversation with Hew about the dread of a _mésalliance_ -made the old baronet's mind revert--as it too often did, bitterly and -unavailingly--to another _mésalliance_ in his family, which nearly -brought ruin--for such in the vanity of his soul he deemed -disgrace--upon the Montgomeries of Eaglescraig, who had for ages been -a power in the bailiwick of Cunninghame. - -'It seems a pity that we should disturb the stagnant waters of that -Dead Lake which men call the Past,' says Miss Braddon; but Sir Piers -was rather prone to do so; and now, as he sat gazing into the red, -clear, burning embers, they seemed to take divers shapes and forms, -quaint and curious pictures, of which, in reality, he saw little, for -his thoughts were treading upon each other fast, and in his dreamy -yet steadfast gaze there was a fixed, a far-off look--a look in -Shadowland. - -A childless old man, he was thinking of what was now, and all that -might have been, but for his own stubborn will and pride of heart. - -Some five-and-twenty years before this time, he had a son who had -been the pride of that heart, and valued all the more as being the -only child of a young and beautiful wife, after whose death he had -never married again, but sought relief from thought amid the wars of -British India. - -From his infancy young Piers had been petted in every way, and was in -some respects the spoiled child of the household. He grew up a -bright and handsome lad, full of intelligence and enthusiasm for -music and painting; but to dabble in these, even as an amateur, Sir -Piers deemed unworthy of his family, so in due time he had his son -gazetted to the Cameronians, then in garrison at Gibraltar. - -During the unhealthy season, which lasts there from July to November, -when the east winds come surcharged with moisture, young Piers was -seized with fever, and obtaining leave of absence, went to travel in -Italy, and his letters that came from thence to Eaglescraig, -detailing his adventures and journeys up Calabrian mountains and -through defiles in the Abruzzi, all indicative of returning health -and strength, filled the heart of his father with joy, as his son, -the heir of his house and name, was the veritable apple of his eye. - -His letters from Rome teemed with his enthusiasm about the objects of -history, the ruins of the past, and his ecstasies over the treasures -of the innumerable _studii_ of painting and sculpture; and then came -much about a painter whose acquaintance he had made at the Academy of -San Luca, and whose daughter was one of the most beautiful girls and -accomplished musicians in that city of pilgrimage to all lovers of -art. - -After this Sir Piers grew painfully and suspiciously conscious of the -fact that his son's correspondence became irregular, his epistles -constrained and brief, while more than one incidental reference to -the artist's handsome daughter caused alarm in the parental heart, -all the more as young Piers had said that her father, 'though a man -of humble origin, was an emperor among artists.' - -'Piers,' said the baronet to his confidential friend and local -factotum, John Balderstone, 'refers to this girl oftener than I quite -relish or like; and his letters are vague and odd as--if--as if--he -had something to conceal. I wish he were back to his regiment at -Gibraltar.' - -'Young men _will_ be young men,' replied the other; 'the girl may -have picked up some pretty tricks of foreign manners, and thus -interested him.' - -'There are four months of his leave to run; surely he will not spend -them all among these painter-fellows in Rome?' said the baronet, -grimly. - -For one moment, however, an idea of what was really the case never -entered the haughty mind of Sir Piers Montgomerie. He only feared an -entanglement--as a subaltern, he had often been in such scrapes -himself--but nothing _more_! - -And now a month elapsed without any letter from Rome, and genuine -anxiety filled the mind of Sir Piers, whom a temporary illness -confined at Eaglescraig, and prevented from coming swoop down upon -his son in the Eternal City, and seeing how 'matters were' for -himself. - -At that very time there arrived at a country hotel, within a few -miles of Eaglescraig, a young married pair, with a valet and a little -French soubrette. Both were singularly handsome--the lady, indeed, -was a very beautiful girl with minute and delicate features, dark -eyes and rich brown hair; and in her husband, whose face and figure -were alike striking, but for the ample beard he now wore, the people -of the hotel would have had little trouble in recognising young Piers -Montgomerie, for he it was, with his bride, the penniless daughter of -'the emperor among artists!' - -He was one who could scarcely fail to make himself agreeable to all -women, as he excelled in that half-flirting manner which some young -men can cultivate with skill; and borne away by a great love for the -girl on one hand, and dreading his father's opposition on the other, -he had married her clandestinely, and had now brought her with him to -Scotland, trusting that her beauty, sweetness, grace and virtue would -open the heart of his father to them both, and pardon the fact of his -having had, as he would have phrased it, a 'stolen march made upon -him.' - -The homeward journey had been but a portion of their honeymoon tour, -and safe in her young husband's love, the girl seemed to see only a -brilliant and happy, if somewhat vague, future. Aware of his -father's temper, spirit, and infatuated pride of family, young Piers -was not without some genuine anxiety as to the result, when the issue -of his rashness seemed so close at hand. - -'If your father is so proud as you say, Piers,' said the young -wife--still a bride--as she nestled her sweet face in his neck, and -his arm went caressingly round her, 'and if he will not forgive the -_mésalliance_ you have made with poor me----' - -'Well, my darling, what then?' - -'You may repent it,' said she, her dark eyes filling with tears, and -her voice trembling with anxiety. - -'Never, my own little wife--never! and by this time to-morrow I hope -to see you taking your place at his table, as the future mistress of -Eaglescraig; though long may the time be ere you are so, for my -father is a dear old fellow--twice my age, at all events!' - -The girl sighed softly, and hoped that all might be as they wished it. - -'Welcome back, my boy!' exclaimed Sir Piers next day, when his son -appeared (but alone) at Eaglescraig; 'why have you been so long in -writing me? Why do you come thus suddenly? and where is your -baggage? But how well you are looking; and, by Jove, you have a -beard like a Brahmin!' - -'I have a long story to tell you, sir, about all my adventures: one -in particular, that may take some time to tell----' - -'Then keep it till after dinner: let us have it with the Chateau -Margaux,' said Sir Piers, laughing; and being timidly willing to -delay till the last moment the revelation that was _inevitable_, his -son--even with the sweet face of her who, at that moment, was alone -in his memory--was glad of the little reprieve. - -Anxious to make a good impression, he made a more than usually -careful toilette in his own old and familiar room; but when he took -his seat at table, the presence of Tunley and the servants, and also -of John Balderstone, who had dropped in on business, and whom the -baronet had pressed to remain, precluded all reference to his secret -for a time, till the cloth was removed, the dessert laid, the -decanters ranged in rank-entire before the host, and Tunley was told -he might withdraw till rung for. - -'And now for your story, Piers,' said the elder Montgomerie: 'the -claret stands with you.' - -'I must first drink to you, and congratulate you on your promotion,' -replied his son. - -'Yes, I am full colonel now, Piers, and may fairly hope to be a -lieutenant-general some of these days. But now for the story,' he -repeated uneasily; 'I suppose John Balderstone may hear it?' - -'Of course, sir,' said Piers, coughing nervously, and twice draining -his large green claret-glass to gain time, while he felt that his -colour came and went, and his father's keen eyes were fixed upon him -with equal scrutiny and affection. - -Young Piers glanced at the stately table, with its massive plate, -glittering crystal, rich wines and luxuriant fruit, and thinking with -joy of her who would be the presiding goddess there to-morrow, told -his narrative in a manly and honest manner, yet not without some -trepidation of tone, while his father sat bolt upright in his chair, -staring at him with a face expressive of rage, incredulity, and -absolute grief, as if he felt that his only son and heir had gone -mad. Worthy John Balderstone also looked scared and bewildered. - -'And now, sir,' continued the son, despite the terrible frown that -deepened on his father's face, 'I have told you all, except my -darling's name.' - -'Her name be----! what is her name to me? Zounds, sir! I don't want -to hear it--the daughter of a beggarly painter--an adventuress--to -become in time Lady Montgomerie of Eaglescraig! No, sir, no; damme, -I'll break the entail; I'll--I'll----' - -Sir Piers for a few moments was literally choking with rage. - -'That my wife is poor and nameless, according to your mode of -thinking, father, is no fault of hers; her beauty is great, her -goodness and accomplishments are rarely surpassed, and surely you -will forgive us, we love each other so?' urged young Piers; and as he -spoke his heart was in his voice, and his very soul seemed welling -out of his fine dark eyes. - -'May the moment that I forgive you and her be my last on earth!' -thundered Sir Piers, smiting the table with his clenched hand; -'forgive you--not if I lived for a thousand years! Away--away! quit -my sight and never let me see your face again!' - -And literally he began to tutor himself to hate his son as much as he -had idolised him before. - -The latter rose from his chair; his handsome face seemed as if -petrified--turned to stone, and with the colour of stone, his nether -lip began to quiver painfully, for he too had a heart of fiery pride. - -Sir Piers rang the bell so furiously that he nearly rent the wires. - -'What are you about to do, sir?' asked his son. - -'I am about to expel you from this house for ever!' replied Sir -Piers. 'Order the waggonette which brought Mr. Montgomerie from his -hotel round from the stables instantly,' he added to the astonished -Tunley, whom the fierce summons--the bell was vibrating still--had -brought up like a genius of the lamp; 'never again is he to set foot -in the house which he has disgraced!' - -In vain did worthy John Balderstone attempt to act the peace-maker; -he was silenced by an imperious wave of the hand. - -'This vile adventuress, for I am sure she is such, shall not quite -gain her ends. I shall break the entail, if I can!' exclaimed Sir -Piers, with growing exasperation; 'by the God that hears me, I will!' - -'Father, see her once--only once--ere you judge of her so cruelly! -And, oh! let us not part thus! One day you may repent it,' urged his -son piteously, and yet not without some anger in his heart. - -'Repent it? never!' replied his father, with a wild and bitter laugh. -'Now then, Tunley, is that waggonette at the door?' - -'Yes, sir,' replied the butler, again appearing, and very much scared. - -'Go!' said Sir Piers to his son; 'as God is our judge, here for ever -ends all between us!' - -He turned and left the room by one door, while his son quitted it by -another, and from that moment the father and son met no more. The -latter's allowance was cut off; he got into debt, sold his -commission, and with his young wife eventually disappeared. Mr. -Balderstone was supposed to be cognisant of his movements for a time -under a false name; however, the general never inquired, and after a -year or so all traces of him were lost. - -Proud of his ancient race, incapable personally of a dishonourable -thought or guilty plan, his son's rash marriage, without his consent, -and with an obscure girl, filled his heart with a species of black -fury, and gave his face a look of repellent pride that was long its -settled expression. - -The fate of Piers became a kind of mystery--hidden; though it is the -fate of things in this world that, as a general rule, nothing is hid -for ever. - -There came a night which the general never forgot! It was the night -of an event which he related only to John Balderstone and one or two -others, confidential friends, who were now no longer in the land of -the living. - -On the night referred to, the lonely general, then creeping up the -vale of years, was seated in the library, lingering over his last -glass of grog, and gazing, as we last left him, into the glowing -embers; his thoughts wandered away from present things to the past in -spite of himself. He reviewed the things of old--forgotten sayings -and doings in camp and quarters, in the field and the Indian jungle; -the faces and the voices of the distant and the dead came back to -him, and among them, more powerfully than usual, the face and voice -of his lost son, Piers. - -There was no sound in the room but the steady and monotonous ticking -of a great antique clock on the black marble mantel-piece, and the -snoring of a Highland stag-hound stretched upon a deerskin before the -fire, unless we add that the night wind moaned shudderingly through a -coppice of red-stemmed Scottish firs, and the beech-trees swayed -drearily in the passing blast. - -A sudden sense of some one being near him--something intangible, -too--came over him; he seemed to hear a sigh, and brave though he -was, his heart felt as if dying within him, and the hair of his head -stood up, or a prickly sensation pervaded all his scalp. - -Beside his chair a kind of shadow seemed to form itself, and become, -with each pulsation of his pulses, more distinct in outline, till the -face and form of his son were before him--the former wasted and -pallid, his eyes full of sorrow and reproach. His hands seemed -unusually white, wan, and the articulations of the fingers were -painfully distinct, as those of one who had been wasted by fever, -toil, and want. - -A thousand maddening and terrifying thoughts seemed to whirl through -the general's brain. He strove to start from his chair, but remained -in it as if spellbound; he strove to cry aloud, but his voice failed -him, or the faint sound he did utter seemed unnatural, and filled him -with greater fear. - -For a moment or two the upbraiding spirit, if spirit it was, or a -creation of his own fevered fancy, stood before him, and then slowly -melted away. - -Sir Piers started to his feet. - -'I have been dreaming,' he said, with a kind of gasping sigh. 'A -plague on such dreams and fancies!' - -But something seemed to tell him it was _not_ a dream, and not a -fancy, and he remembered that in the pale and wasted hands of the -figure were a sheaf of small brushes such as artists use, and a -mahl-stick. Had Piers in his dire necessity betaken himself to art -to gain a livelihood? - -He sat for some time waiting and watching, in a state of awe, terror, -and intense anxiety, for the appearance to return, but it came no -more; but from that moment an assurance stole into his heart that his -son must be dead--that he perhaps died at that particular moment: and -then he began to think, and think, and think again, how hard and -pitiless he had been; and his handsome face grew older and more -lined, and wrinkles seemed to come where none were formed as yet. He -might have said with Balder: - - 'I have lived in the past, - As by a deathbed, with unwonted love, - And much forgiveness as we bring to those - Who can offend no more.' - - -So time passed on, and old age came upon him--a childless old age. - -His son was gone--he had no doubt of that! He had no nephew, no -cousin, or cousin's son, to succeed him in the lands that had been in -his family since the wars of Bruce and Wallace--yea, since Norwegian -Haco's banner fell on the field of Largs; and he began to fear that -his title would become extinct, when, in the 'Landed Gentry of Grat -Britain and Ireland,' he found that Sir Bernard Burke had assigned a -place to a certain Mr. Hew Montgomerie, then broiling in the Indian -Civil Service, proving that he was the nearest living relative of the -line of Eaglescraig. - -His lawyers speedily communicated with that amiable personage, whom -we have already introduced to the reader, and thus it is that he came -to be resident at Eaglescraig as heir of entail, and to the baronetcy. - -The poor old general strove his hardest to like Hew, who also strove -sedulously, and pretty skilfully, to keep his many bad qualities -secret from him; but often when Sir Piers was in his thoughtful or -sad moods, he would ask Mary to sing to him certain old songs that -were associated in some way with the long-lost Piers, and as her soft -voice went to the old man's heart, and her pretty hands strayed over -the piano-keys, she 'soothed him to peace,' as Mrs. Garth was wont to -say, 'as the harp of David had soothed King Saul with the holy spell -of sweet music;' but it was a spell that always sent the thoughts of -Sir Piers to wander in Shadow-land. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -LESLIE FOTHERINGHAME. - -'Welcome back to Dumbarton, where I have been somewhat rather of a -hermit since you left it--welcome back to pipeclay and all the "pomp, -pride, and circumstance of glorious war!" The decanter is beside -you, and I think there are some prime havannas left in that box. So, -now, let us be jolly,' exclaimed Leslie Fotheringhame, as Falconer -seated himself in the quarters of the former, a curious-looking, -old-fashioned room--the same that had been occupied by the little -Queen Mary in her twelfth year (ere she sailed to France, after the -battle of Pinkie)--one of the oldest parts of the castle. - -Falconer cast himself with an air of weariness into an easy-chair, -though his journey from Eaglescraig had not been a very long one. - -'What about our fellows, Fotheringhame?' he asked, manipulating a -cigar. - -'The detachment?' - -'Yes.' - -'There is not much to report; two fellows are in "the shop" for -absence from parade; one in the cells, for being drunk and -disorderly; and little Fuddie, the drummer, has cut his stick--or -sticks, should I say? Probably finding, as Sterne has it, that "the -honour of beating a drum was likely to be its own reward," he has -taken French leave and bolted. If caught, we should duck the fellow -in the Clyde, but for the seventh clause of the sixth section on -"Discipline," which prevents the adoption of punishments in -detachments that are at variance with those in use at headquarters.' - -Falconer continued to smoke in silence, so Fotheringhame spoke again. - -'England expects every man to do his duty--but as cheaply as -possible--for next to nothing, in fact; so, after your late -surroundings, the luxury of my quarters will fail to impress you as -either being useful or ornamental--as a certain poem has it, here -are-- - - '"Apparatus for washing: a pail and a can, - Part of an Army List, half of a fan, - A fawn-coloured glove, a lock of false hair-- - Both highly prized gifts from some lady fair; - A case of blunt razors, a shako and plume; - A fishing-rod, shot-belt, rifle, and broom; - An invite to dinner, the card of a priest, - A sketch of the colonel described as 'a beast.'"' - - -While Fotheringhame ran on laughingly thus, Falconer was silent and -pre-occupied, or replied only by a faint smile. - -Leslie Fotheringhame was a handsome man, but of a different type from -Cecil Falconer. He was taller and more squarely built, with deep-set -and grave dark-blue eyes, the expression of which generally belied -his merry manner; he was dark-haired, with a firm mouth, a clear dark -skin and ponderous black moustache. His manner was ever honest, -frank, and pleasant; and though his turn of mind was somewhat -cynical--as if he had met with some disappointment in life--his face -at times wore a smile that lit it up like a sunbeam. - -Though junior to Cecil Falconer in the regiment, he was his senior by -some years; for he had once been a captain of Lancers, but sold his -troop, no one knew why, and afterwards obtained a non-purchase -commission in the Cameronians. He was also greatly Cecil's senior in -experience. He was wont to boast that he had, by a fluke, escaped -the perilous meshes of matrimony, though the mess rather opined that -he had been disappointed, 'thrown over,' by some girl, though none -exactly knew the story. - -'What is doing at headquarters?' asked Falconer. - -'Birkie of that Ilk has sent in his papers.' - -'Birkie--why?' - -'Lost a pot of money on a hurdle-race at Streatham--it's a step in -the regiment; but everyone is very, sorry for poor Birkie. Acharn -has got into a scrape with a widow, whose husband suddenly turned up, -so he has gone on leave, to be out of the way, and Freeport too.' - -'Freeport--what was Dick up to?' - -'He proposed to three sisters in one night--all the daughters of a -commandant of one of those confounded brigade depots, and hearing -that the adjutant might be sent for his sword, Dick was off like a -bird by an early train for London. But we all know that Dick has an -engagement-ring with a blue stone, which he gives to some girl -everywhere, yet contrives to get back in a lover's quarrel when the -route comes.' - -To Fotheringhame it was apparent that his friend had come back to -Dumbarton in a somewhat taciturn mood--cloudy in face and abstracted -in manner. - -'What the dickens has happened?' thought he. - -'Was our colonel--the old general--kind?' he asked. - -'Very,' was the curt reply. - -'And the ladies--kinder still, I suppose?' hazarded Fotheringhame, -lying back in his chair and shooting concentric rings of -tobacco-smoke upward. 'No answer--eh? Now, apropos of the subject -of your remarkable letter, I hope that you have left Eaglescraig -without committing yourself?' - -'I played no more with that fellow Hew.' - -'I am not thinking of Hew.' - -'Committing myself--how?' - -'By a proposal.' - -'What had I to offer a girl so rich as Mary Montgomerie--an heiress, -in fact?' - -'All that a girl wants in a husband, I suppose--a deuced good-looking -and presentable fellow of his inches.' - -'I could never sink to be a dependent on my wife, Leslie. Had Mary -been penniless----' - -'Oh, come--we have got the length of calling her Mary, have we?' - -'Had she been so, I might not have shrunk from asking her to share my -poverty--for such it is; but her fortune is an impassable barrier -between us--and I would to heaven that I had never set foot in -Eaglescraig!' - -'This is rather Quixotic,' said Fotheringhame, sipping his brandy and -water, and humming-- - - '"'Tis madness to remember--'twere better to forget."' - - -'Moreover, if she marries without her guardian's consent, "then in -that case," as the will has it, her money passes from her.' - -'You seem to have had all the details through hand,' said -Fotheringhame, drily. - -'Not with her, at all events.' - -'And she is attractive?' - -'Attractive is not the word--she is downright lovely, and good as she -is lovely! But her guardian, the general, has decided on plans for -her future.' - -'A peerage.' - -'Not at all. He resolves that she shall marry the cub called Hew -Montgomerie, who is the heir of entail--a kind of distant cousin.' - -'Does--Mary affect him?' asked Fotheringhame, with a quizzical smile. - -'Not at all! But I cannot tell you how much she has bewitched me.' - -'Aware all the while of the plan in store for her.' - -'I know what a sceptic you are about women, Leslie; but her face is -ever before me, by day and night. I can see it now looking at me, -out of that blank barrack wall, as plainly as I see yours. She has -indeed bewitched me!' - -Fotheringhame looked at the wall indicated, shrugged his shoulders, -and said, with a provoking laugh: - -'I can't help thinking, old fellow, that the girl has been amusing -herself with you, from the details you give me, and that a flirtation -was all she wanted.' - -'Fotheringhame!' - -'Don't get excited. I am sure that, like other dear creatures, - - 'Her feet are so very little, - Her hands are so very white; - Her jewels are so very heavy, - Her head so very light; - Her colour is made of cosmetics, - Though this she never will own; - Her body's made mostly of cotton, - Her heart is made wholly of stone.' - - -'This may apply to some goddess of yours,' said Falconer, becoming -seriously ruffled; 'but as for me----' - -'There will be no more larks or rows,' continued Fotheringhame, -laughing; 'no more chance medley flirtations at picnics or lawn -tennis, or even in the conservatory; our mind, or what is left of it, -must run only on one ideal, and on presents of dainty gloves for -lovely little hands, books and bouquets, chains, lockets, and -bracelets, pressure of the taper fingers, perhaps even a chaste kiss, -as Byron has it----' - -'By Jove, Leslie, how you can gabble!' said Falconer, but without a -smile, for something peculiarly uncomfortable and damping in the -closing details of his visit to Eaglescraig haunted him. - -Perceiving this, Fotheringhame's banter ceased, and after a pause he -said: - -'Pardon me, Cecil, if my jokes annoy you; but if she does not wish to -marry this fellow Hew, why should she?' - -'Why?' - -'Yes; no power can compel her. The day is passed when girls can be -married against their will, except in novels. There may be, I am -aware, a mild system of domestic pressure, a steady and persevering -domestic tyranny, quite as mischievous in the end, sometimes, as the -brute force of the terrible old baron or stern parent of the Middle -Ages; and I have even known more than one case in which the feeble -opposition of a girl has been foiled under the powerful home-current, -as it flowed on and bore her away with it.' - -'By Jove, Leslie, you _are_ a Job's comforter! And now, by-the-bye, -there is another girl at Eaglescraig of whom I have not yet spoken--a -lady on a visit.' - -'And your mind was divided between them?' - -'Not at all, though the beauty and style of Annabelle Erroll are -indescribable.' - -'_Who_ did you say?' exclaimed Leslie Fotheringhame, as his voice and -face changed curiously, he took the cigar from his lips and sat bolt -upright in his chair. - -'Annabelle Erroll; she knows you, by the way, and I hope the general -will, in turn, invite you to Eaglescraig.' - -'I hope not,' said Fotheringhame, sadly and fervently; 'by Jove, I -hope not!' - -'Why?' - -'Why? Because I would not go under any circumstances or pressure, -from what you tell me.' - -'As to what, or whom? Hew Montgomerie?' - -'Hew be hanged! No.' - -'Who then?' - -'Annabelle Erroll,' said Fotheringhame, uttering the name sadly, -softly, and with unction. - -'So, thereby hangs a tale.' - -'Yes, old fellow--a devil of a tale I would rather not unfold.' - -'Then you have had your little weakness too?' - -'Of course; I've been in love like other--fools; who has not?' - -Cecil Falconer, however, was too full of his own affair to ponder -long over the mysterious intimacy that existed, or had existed, -between Annabelle Erroll and Leslie Fotheringhame. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -SEPARATED. - -Though grievously disappointed that his late guest should have proved -the gamester Hew described him to be, and not ill-pleased to have a -rival of the latter at a distance from Eaglescraig, Sir Piers, to do -him justice, in the kindness of his heart, missed his friend, the -genial young officer, who had been so patient a listener to those -dreary Indian reminiscences, over which Hew openly groaned and -secretly swore. - -Mrs. Garth and Annabelle Erroll missed him for his musical -accomplishments and conversational qualities, and poor Mary missed -him more than all, while her aversion to Hew became more undisguised -than ever, and he spitefully retorted by saying more than once in her -hearing that 'a deuced good lesson had been taught Sir Piers never -again to invite, without a due and accredited introduction, any -chance-medley fellow to Eaglescraig.' - -Her manner to his heir at last drew upon her the animadversion of Sir -Piers. - -'My dear girl,' said he to her one day, 'I must remonstrate with you, -as the betrothed wife of Hew.' - -'Betrothed! by whom?' asked Mary, with mingled gravity and anger. - -'By me, my darling; as such, I say, you owe him some duty, and some -respect, and a deference to his opinions. School yourself to love -him properly in the time to come, and not distress your poor old -grand-uncle and guardian, who loves you so well for your dead -parents' sake.' - -'I do not, and cannot love him!' said the girl, wearily. - -'Not now, you think; but in time, Mary, in the good time to come,' he -continued, stroking her rich, dark hair caressingly, as if she were -yet a little child; and when he adopted a pleading tone and manner, -rather than those of authority and command, she felt a deeper emotion -of pain and annoyance. - -'There is no necessity for having romantic notions, or being -desperately fond of your intended husband. The notions and the love -will come in due time after marriage,' said the old man, who had -well-nigh forgotten all about his own early love and marriage, which -had come to pass so long ago. 'You have wealth, Mary.' - -'What is wealth, if linked with unhappiness?' - -'Hew will make you a good husband; if he did not--if he did not!' and -the general paused, and grasping the knob of his arm-chair, looked -unutterable things at the idea of such a contingency. 'As I have -said a hundred times since he came from India, with your fortune -added to what I shall leave--all going to Hew as heir of entail--the -future baronet of Eaglescraig will, in wealth, be second to none, -richer by far than half the peerage; and marry you cannot, without my -permission.' - -'But to marry when one cannot love is--is----' - -'What, girl?' asked Sir Piers, peevishly, for he had not again -referred to the suspected fancy for Cecil Falconer, though his mind -was full of it. - -'Falsehood and dishonesty, rank injustice, and shameful!' - -'Well--anything more?' he continued angrily. - -'Yes--destruction of soul and body, perhaps.' - -'Mary, you do not look beyond the present,' said Sir Piers, with -growing sternness, to find his pet scheme so vigorously opposed; -'hence it is my imperative duty to do that for you, and with a firm -will and resolute hand to scheme out a happy future.' - -'How miserably had he schemed out the future of his poor dead son!' -thought Mrs. Garth, as she led Mary away in tears and anger. - -Meanwhile, if Hew looked upon himself as the future lord and master -of Mary Montgomerie and her thousands, still more surely did he look -upon himself as the future laird, lord, and master of Eaglescraig and -all that appertained thereto; and while impatiently looking forward -to the day of his succession, gave himself, unknown to Sir Piers, -such airs with old and valued adherents, such as John Balderstone the -factor, Tunley the aged butler, whose taste in wine he scouted; Pate -Pastern the head groom, who was cognisant of some of his tricks on -the turf; old Sandy Swanshott the head keeper, with even Mrs. Garth -and others, that, certes, he won anything but golden opinions from -all! - -Between him and John Balderstone there was a species of smouldering -feud. The latter loved and revered Sir Piers, and always winced when -Hew showed, as he had the coarseness and ill-feeling to do, that he -actually prayed for the sudden or premature arrival of the time when -he should figure as Sir Hew Montgomerie; premature it could scarcely -be now, though the hale old man seemed to have years of life in him -yet. - -Mr. Balderstone was not slow in perceiving how Hew disliked their -late visitor, Cecil Falconer, and thus was disposed to vaunt his -praises in the mere spirit of opposition. - -'I can't perceive the fellows' merits in any way,' growled Hew with -an oath, as they entered the smoking-room one evening. - -'That I can very well believe,' replied the old gentleman, drily. - -'How--why?' demanded Hew, suspecting something in his tone. - -'Plainly, then, to do so would argue the existence of what you do not -possess.' - -'What is that--perception?' - -'No.' - -'What then?' - -'Some refinement of taste,' replied Mr. Balderstone, his dark grey -eyes beaming as he made a home-thrust, for which Hew quickly revenged -himself in a fashion of his own, causing the portly Mr. Balderstone, -as he seated himself, to spring up with a malediction. - -'What the devil is the row?' asked Hew. - -'Only this, sir, that you have placed a pair of sharp jack-spurs upon -the chair you so politely accorded me!' - -'And you have a sanguinary sense of sitting down on the rowels--eh?' -said Hew, laughing heartily, and not even attempting an apology, -while his shifty eyes now beamed with delight. - -'I presume these spurs are a present to you, from your friend Mr. -Welsher Twigg, the gentleman rider, whose peculiar riding so favoured -you at Ayr and York last year,' said Mr. Balderstone, with some -contempt of manner, while Hew's parti-coloured eyes now gleamed with -rage, for it was averred on the turf, that bribed by him, the rider -in question, when pretending to give a horse a bucket of water, -daubed his nostrils with blood, to make people believe the animal had -broken a blood vessel, and had secretly loosened the nails in the -shoes of another, at a hurdle-race, to prevent him winning. - -As these black rumours had never reached the ear of Sir Piers, Mr. -Balderstone felt that he had 'scored one' by the taunt; but in a time -to come, and by both unforeseen then, he was to run up a terrible and -crushing score against Hew Montgomerie, with a result that neither -could have imagined. - -Slowly passed the days now with Mary. The spacious house was full of -new guests, and pleasant ones too, but it seemed dull and dreary, -since _he_ was no longer there. His place was vacant. The click of -balls came from the billiard-room, and the sound of merry voices, but -his was no longer there, or at her piano now. All seemed changed to -Mary. Sir Piers never adverted to his visit, his name or his -existence; and scarcely ever to the old and invariable topic of the -Cameronians. - -Why was this? Did he suspect their secret, or was Hew the spirit of -evil? She could not doubt that; and her sympathetic friend Annabelle -Erroll, who was a close observer of affairs, and had all Mary's -confidence, thought so too. - -But Annabelle Erroll had thoughts that were peculiarly her own, over -the departure of Cecil Falconer. - -'He has gone from me to Leslie,' she said to herself; 'to Leslie -Fotheringhame, to tell him that he has spent a whole month with me--a -month in my society, and I have given no sign that Leslie's existence -was ever aught to me--at least, I hope so--and yet there was a time -when I was all the world to him! Yes--yes--it is indeed over and -done with, the love that was once ours. Will Leslie ask him how I am -looking?' (she glanced at her soft blonde beauty in the mirror). 'Or -how I am comporting myself--sadly or merrily?--if I am unchanged from -the Annabelle of the time that can come no more?' - -For some mysterious reason she had not taken her friend Mary into her -confidence at first, when Fotheringhame's name was spoken of; and now -she shrunk from doing so, lest she might seem wanting in candour; -and, as the love she referred to was 'over and done with,' what -mattered it now?' - -And yet often Mary might have drawn such a confidence from her. - -'Oh, Annabelle,' she would sometimes say, 'so quick is fancy, that -occasions there are when I see a figure like Cecil's in the -distance--the figure of some one else, whose walk or gesture recalls -him vividly to me--that I feel something like a sharp pang in my -heart.' - -As days passed on and became weeks, Mary's movements and manner -became languid, and all her old occupations, if not neglected, were -pursued with a weary indifference. She had lost interest even in -being dressed to perfection, as she had always been, and spent hours -in the seclusion of her own room, or exclusively in the society of -Annabelle Enroll. - -Her eyes lost their clear brilliance and became heavy in expression; -her usually gentle and playful manner was changed for petulance and -irritability, all signs of where and how her thoughts were--signs -which Hew watched with jealous rage, and loving, old Sir Piers with -unaffected solicitude, mingled with bitterness at Falconer, and at -himself for that which he now deemed his own fantastic idea of -_camaraderie_ and old military hospitality. - -'Never again,' he would mutter to himself, 'never again will I play -the fool! Hew is right--Hew is right!' - -His pet from her orphan childhood, his artless, father-like -experience of her, had, until quite recently, prevented him from -remarking that she was no longer a baby-faced girl, but a grown -woman--a bird that might leave him for another nest--and then a kind -of nervous thrill went through his heart, when he thought a love for -another might take possession of her; and thus he became doubly -anxious to secure her for Hew. - -'How pale and ill you look, my darling!' said Mrs. Garth to her, at -the close of a day that had seemed a long and dreary one to Mary. - -'What matters it?' said she, petulantly; 'Cecil cannot see me now,' -she added mentally, as her eyes wandered through the window to the -wooded walk that led to the grotto--the grotto where Cecil had first -told her of his love, and where his lips had touched hers for the -first and last time, and the host of tender recollections that -hallowed the place flowed full upon her memory. 'Why are some people -sent into this world only to be miserable!' sighed the lovely -heiress, while surrounded by every luxury that world could furnish. -'I wonder if we ever lived before and were happy--or if we shall live -again, and be happier still! Who can tell--who knows?' - -Then tenderly and fondly she recalled the words of Cecil, when he -spoke to her of the mysterious sympathy that, in his solitary -moments, had seemed to link his soul, or existence, with that of -another, and could she doubt now that it was her own! - -And with this idea, a tender and loving expression would steal over -her delicate _mignonne_ face. - -'Rouse yourself, my darling,' Mrs. Garth would say, 'ride or -drive--read or work.' - -'Read--read! I hate books now--I hate crewel-work, music, -everything!' she replied, almost snappishly; 'dear old Garthy, I am -no longer a schoolgirl, and I never, at any time, was one cut to the -Hannah More pattern.' - -She had learned from his own lips how Cecil loved her; but now Cecil -was gone and never could return, and all her little world seemed -sunless and cold--dark and desolate. She was no longer alternately -amused and petulant, coquettish and light-hearted, for a settled -moodiness had come over her--the gloom of sorrow, not anger; and -though no one, not even Annabelle, surprised her in tears, her eyes -sometimes bore unmistakable traces of recent weeping. - -A wild longing would, at times, come over her to see Cecil again--to -hear his voice--to know what he was doing, or with whom he was at -that particular moment; but the days passed vaguely and drearily on, -while she thought of him, dreamt of him, talked in fancy to him, and -wove such romances about him and herself, as only a young girl can -weave. - -He was not very distant from her after all, and yet he might, so far -as their intercourse was concerned, have been at the Antipodes; for -no tidings, no news of him, ever came to Eaglescraig, and at last, to -Mary, it began to seem as if the sweet bright chapter in her life, -about Cecil Falconer, was utterly ended! - -And probably she would never love again, she thought; for that she -had given him was the one love of a lifetime. - -But the general and Mrs. Garth thought they knew better; and that her -ailment was only a girlish fancy, that naturally would pass away and -be forgotten. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -ANNABELLE ERROLL. - -Now Leslie Fotheringhame, though disposed at first to be somewhat -reticent on the subject of his previous intimacy with Annabelle -Erroll, after a time confided their mutual story to Cecil Falconer. - -Thrown together as he and the latter were, in that lonely and -isolated fort, the whole garrison of which, besides their own -detachment, consisted only of a master gunner and a few old -pensioners, it was natural that they should have their mutual -confidences over their after-dinner cigars, and thus Falconer heard -all about it from Fotheringhame. - -'You see, old fellow, it came to pass in this way. - -'My troop of Lancers was quartered in Perth Barracks, while the -head-quarters were stationed at Piershill. I soon tired of all the -little gaieties afforded by the Fair City; but the season was summer, -and the Tay afforded me endless amusement for fly-fishing and -boating; and, as one of my subs was on leave and the other on the -sick-list, I was somewhat thrown on my own resources. - -'I had a swift light shallop, in which I used to pull daily, when the -tide or stream served, from the bridge upward past the wooded slopes -of Kinnoull, and away for miles amid the loveliest and most luxuriant -sylvan scenery in the world. - -'One day the heat was very great, and, ceasing to row, I lay back in -the stern-sheets of my boat, with a cigar between my lips, and let -her float, lazily, on the current of the stream, which flowed between -its wooded banks deeply, silently, and majestically. On every hand -around me were a long series of varied hills covered with picturesque -foliage of every shade of green, the vista everywhere terminated by -the more remote mountains, the rich tints of which were softened in -the blue haze and by the distance. - -'At a bend of the river my boat partially grounded, but I felt too -lazy to shove off, and lay there under the shadows cast upon the -bright stream by the overreaching elms, oaks, and silver birches, -among the blended foliage of which the blue doves were cooing, and -where the wild violets and jasmine grew close to the water's-edge. -On all the river I thought there could be no lovelier spot than this. -Save the stillness of its flow, and the hum of the mountain honey-bee -among the wild flowers of the wood, in and out of the gueldre-roses -and foxglove-bells, there was no sound in the air, as I lay there in -a kind of daydream, with my arms resting idly on my sculls, till the -voice of a girl, singing close by, roused me at once to attention. - -'Sweetly she sung, and seemed to give her whole soul and pathos to -the song. She thought no ear save her own was within hearing; but -for a time the singer remained unseen by me. - - '"'Love me always--love me ever,' - Said a voice low, sad, and sweet; - 'Love me always--love me ever,' - Memory will the words repeat." - - -'And in truth, Falconer, I give them by an effort of memory now, it -is so long since I heard and read them: - - '"While in fancy still beside me, - Is her fair and graceful form; - And I hear the murmured love-words, - Gushing from her heart so warm." - - '"From her heart, subdued by sorrow, - In its fond and trusting youth, - Till she trembles lest the morrow - Rob some idol of its--truth?" - - -'A slight impetus which I gave my boat with one of the sculls, -brought me quite suddenly to the very feet of the singer, as she -stood on the edge of the stream, embowered among foliage, and shaded -by the light aspen-like sprays of the silver birches, regarding me -with some surprise, for my boating costume, I dare say, was novel in -that quarter, and seeming irresolute as to whether she should -retire--any way, advance she could not. - -'I saw at a glance that the girl was just at that age which is -between childhood and maidenhood, that she was perfectly lady-like, -delicate in form and figure, and possessed of rare beauty of the -fairest, or blonde type; her hair of the lightest brown, and shot -with gold that made it brilliant in the flakes of sunlight that -flashed between the trees; her eyes, of dark-grey blue, had brows and -lashes so dark as to impart great character to her otherwise soft and -_mignonne_ face; but you know well who I am describing. - -'She had a bunch of wild-flowers in one hand; the other grasped the -ribbons of her tiny hat, which she was swinging to and fro, as she -had come through the wood bareheaded, and was evidently not far from -her home. - -'"Pardon me," said I, lifting my cap, "but I am afraid that I am -rather a trespasser here." - -'"Not at all, sir; the river is free to everyone." - -'"But I have been almost ashore, and is not that presuming too far?" -I asked again, only for the pleasure of conversing with her. - -'"Oh no," she replied, with a charming smile. - -'"But I have disturbed you, I fear." - -'"How?" - -'"I heard you singing--need I say, how sweetly!" - -'"An old song, quoted from some old book, but the melody far -surpasses the words." - -'"Yes, as sung by your voice," said I, gallantly. - -'"What a pretty boat yours is! Have you rowed far?" - -'"All the way from the bridge." - -'"You must be weary, otherwise I would ask you----" - -'She blushed and paused. - -'"I am not at all weary, and am every way at your service." - -'"Oh, thanks; will you row to the other side, and bring me some of -the lovely--" - -'She mentioned some peculiar kind of fern. - -'"Permit me to row you across, and you can select them for yourself." - -'Her eyes sparkled with pleasure, but she hesitated. - -'"You mistrust a stranger," said I; "and perhaps your papa might be -displeased--" - -'"Poor papa is dead; but mamma would, I know, be angry. She is full -of strict and strange notions; thus I can never venture far alone." - -'"But the distance is so short--" - -'"And she is always busy at this hour." - -'"Come, then." - -'She confidingly put her little hand in mine, sprang with charming -grace lightly into the cushioned seat astern, and exclaimed with -girlish delight: - -'"What a lovely boat! How delicious this is! Though we live only a -mile from the Tay, I have never had a row on it." - -'"Permit me to give you a little one now," said I, assuming my -sculls, and shot the boat out into mid-stream. I regarded her beauty -with growing admiration and pleasure; but my Lancer experiences -caused the thought to occur, could she be so innocent, so utterly -guileless as she seemed? - -'Some ferns were speedily selected, and uprooted by my knife, also -some magnificent water-lilies from a pool under the trees; and, as -she seemed thoroughly to enjoy herself upon the sunlit river, I -pulled her to and fro, near the silver birches where I first met her, -and she chatted away to me as if she had known me for months. That -she was a lady in birth and breeding was indisputable; her accent was -highly cultivated and her manners refined, and everything about the -girl betokened gentle blood; but there was an artlessness combined -with girlish abandon about her, that made me curiously and -uncharitably suspicious, while deeply and suddenly interested in her. -Thus I said, after a pause, while letting the boat drift with the -current, and keeping the blades of my sculls just out of the water: - -'"You do me great honour, and must have singular confidence in me, a -stranger, that you trust yourself with me thus." - -'"How we glide!" exclaimed the girl, with childish glee. "Oh, I -could sail here for ever!" - -'"What would mamma think, if she knew it?" - -'"Being with you?" - -'"Yes." - -'"I scarcely know what she would think; but I know what she would -_do_," was the reply. - -'"Admonish you?" - -'"Yes; and lock me up for days to come. But I can see, of course, -that you are a gentleman." - -'"Thanks for the compliment." - -'"But it is difficult to say what else; your costume is so unlike -anyone we see hereabout." - -'I wore simply a rowing suit of white flannel, trimmed and faced with -blue, with a skull-cap to match. - -'"I am a Lancer," said I. - -'"A Lancer!" she repeated, while her blue eyes dilated. - -'"Yes; I command the troop in Perth Barracks." - -'I could see that the information pleased her, for her colour rose -and she looked aside; and again I pondered as to whether she was the -hoyden by nature I suspected. - -'"I must return home now," she said suddenly, as if she read my -thoughts in my face. - -'"So soon?" I urged, pleadingly. - -'"Yes; and thanks, so much, for your row--it has been delightful." - -'"I shall be so glad to row you further next time." - -'"You talk as if you expected to see me again--as if it were quite a -matter of course." - -'"I can only hope to do so," said I, handing her ashore and retaining -her little, ungloved hand, lingeringly in mine; "but I row past here -every day, _at the same hour_." - -'"Good-bye," said she, about to turn away. - -'"May I ask your name?" said I, cap in hand. - -'"Annabelle Erroll." - -'"Why do you start so?" she asked laughingly, and, tripping up the -bank, vanished among the white stems of the silver birches, leaving -her ferns in the boat behind her. - -'Start! Well might I do so; for I now discovered that she was my -cousin, the daughter of a widowed maternal Aunt Annabelle, with whom -my parents had ever been at enmity, about some money quarrel, with -her husband, Colonel Erroll--an aunt whom I had never met, and of -whose existence I had but a vague idea. - -'My cousin she was, and proud, greedy old Uncle Erroll's daughter! I -would rather not have heard this; for the girl's rare beauty -attracted me powerfully on one hand, while the transmitted stories of -the family feud--stories which in boyhood made me regard the colonel -and his wife as an ogre and ogress--on the other, had a fatal effect -upon me. - -'That her mother yet kept up the feud, was evident from the -circumstance that she had never mentioned to Annabelle the fact, -which she must have known, that I commanded the Lancers at the -barrack within a few miles of their own house. Yet to have done so -would have served no end; though I thought not of that. - -'Would the young girl understand, or accept, my _hint_? - -'When, on the following day, I betook me to the bend of the river in -my boat, she was not there. I waited long, and reluctantly pulled -away with a certain emotion of pique. But, on the _next_ day again, -at the same hour, I saw her light skirt flitting among the silver -birches, and at once crept inshore. I had cut some fresh fern roots -for her, in place of those she had forgotten. - -'"Ah, how thoughtful and kind of you," she exclaimed, as she gave me -her hand, and allowed me to lead her on board, quite as a matter of -course. - -'"You will have a little row to-day?" said I. - -'"A very tiny one it must be, then; I am so afraid of mamma," she -replied; and in another minute we were skimming over the silvery -water. - -'"Have you mentioned to your mamma your meeting with me?" I inquired. - -'"With you--a stranger? Oh, I dare not, Captain Fotheringhame." - -'"You know my name, then!" - -'"I saw in a newspaper, by the merest chance, that you were a guest -of Lord Rothiemay's." - -'For certain cogent reasons of my own, I could not help colouring -like a great schoolboy at this peer's name, as I had been involved in -something closer than a mere flirtation with a daughter of his; but -in the present instance, while feeling already inclined to be rather -cousinly, I resolved to remain incog. as long as I could. I knew -that she would not mention my name at home, and so resolved to -abandon myself to the perilous charm of her society during the -absence of the Rothiemays in London. I admit freely that I was -wrong, selfish in this, and severely was I punished in the end. - -'This second day on the river was succeeded by many others, during -which I gave myself completely up to the fascination of my new -companion, who was so bright, quaint, and _spirituelle_, and full of -enthusiasm for music, flowers, scenery, and everything, that she was -unlike any other girl I had ever met--more than all, most unlike in -style of beauty and manner the stately and patrician daughter of -Rothiemay. - -The boat, in the blaze of the sunshine, was drifting with the -current; my sculls in the rowlocks rested on my knees; my cigar, the -place and time, disposed me for luxurious reverie; and opposite me -sat this beautiful girl, her hat beside her, her golden hair and fair -face shaded by her parasol, while she sang in a low voice her song, -"Love me always--love me ever," her eyes fixed dreamily on the wooded -shore the while. - -'"Annabelle," said I, softly. - -'"Who gave you leave to call me by that name?" she asked, pouting. - -'"Is it not your name?" - -'"Yes, Captain Fotheringhame." - -'"And a very pretty one; yet not even pretty enough for you. Why may -I not call you by it?" - -'"It sounds odd on your lips--already." - -'"But not unpleasant, I hope?" - -'She laughed, but became silent, and glanced at me shyly under her -long lashes--shyly, and yet at times I thought half invitingly, half -defiantly, too. Was the girl acting or not? I felt inclined to love -her one moment, and simply and selfishly to amuse myself with her the -next, heedless, perhaps, of whether the poor girl might learn to love -me or not. - -'I was a young fellow then, Falconer--save in experience, I am not an -old fellow yet--but she was younger still, a very girl, on the -borders between childhood and womanhood, the "sweet seventeen" of the -inevitable love story. I was playing with fire, and so was she; and -in teaching her to love me, I forgot all about an entanglement -elsewhere, and gave myself up to the romance and intoxication of the -time and the episode. So we met and dreamed on day by day, and she -was so brilliantly happy that her soft face at times seemed to be -singularly brightened by the very gladness of her heart; for it seems -so natural for a young girl to mingle something of idolatry with her -first love. - -'It did occur to me that our love--hers, at least--was somewhat of -the rash and romantic Romeo and Juliet, passionate and unreasoning -kind; while she was as young and innocent as I was exacting, and even -suspicious that she was perfectly artless. I pondered over the words -of Shakespeare: "Love sought is good; but given unsought is better;" -and I was cynic, casuist, and egotist enough to doubt this. - -'When I kissed her, it seemed each time as if all my soul went out to -her with that kiss; and yet--what idiosyncrasy of the heart was it -that made me wish to have that kiss recalled! - -'"I seem to have no wish or desire in the world ungratified," she -whispered to me, as she nestled her head on my shoulder, while the -boat drifted with the current under the tremulous shade of the silver -birches, and the Tay rippled placidly past them. - -'"You are so happy, Annabelle?" - -'"I never thought to be so happy as I am now, Leslie; I could even -die with your arms round me! But--but are you satisfied to have such -an ignorant little girl for your wife?" - -'_Wife_! I had not proposed yet; and the word roused me to a selfish -consciousness of the rashness of the whole affair, and so instead of -replying I gave her a tender caress, and said: - -'"You are too good for me, Annabelle!" - -'"I can scarcely believe it--you so handsome, so rich--a captain of -Lancers, and all that! Oh, Leslie, God forbid you should ever cease -to love me less than you do!" - -'This crisis in my river-cruising roused me to think of what I was -about; and still more was I roused when at the barracks I found a -letter from Lord Rothiemay awaiting me with an invitation to spend a -few days at his place. But to leave my troop then was impossible, -thus I wrote thanking his lordship, and proposing simply to gallop -over on an evening named to dinner, and as I despatched the missive, -the face and figure of his daughter Blanche came reproachfully before -me. - -'I have already referred to an entanglement--it was simply that, -though no promise had been given, I deemed myself all but engaged to -Blanche Gordon, who, some months before this time had enchanted and -spell-bound me. She was, indeed, a beautiful girl, and is a -beautiful woman now, tall, slender, and graceful--a finished creature -in every way, and wielding every natural and acquired accomplishment -with consummate and yet unapparent art. - -'She had given me every reason to believe that the passion with which -she had inspired me was reciprocated, and we had only parted with the -mutual hope, apparently, of meeting again; hence there seemed an -absolute necessity for breaking off my philandering on the river. It -is said that a man cannot love two women at once; and yet my heart -ached for Annabelle and the grief that was before her. - -'By some sophistry I nursed myself into the idea that I, rather than -she, was the victim of circumstances; and as I went to the -trysting-place for the last time I muttered: - -'"'Handsome, rich, and a Lancer,'" she said. "Yes--yes, by Jove! she -is not so deuced artless, after all; and the very proposal she made -to me was in itself unwomanly." - -'_Unwomanly_! I actually had the cruelty to tell her so; and never -shall I forget the look of incredulity, grief, dismay, and horror -that appeared by turns, and then all blended together, in her -beautiful face when I did so; and, already repenting what I had said -so capriciously, I would have retracted my words if it were possible -to do so. - -'The phrase went through her loving heart like a bolt of ice, though -she seemed to hear it indistinctly. - -'"Oh, Leslie!" she gasped, in an accent of desolation such as human -lips can utter but once in a lifetime, while her hands became cold -and her face grew livid. She bit her lips till the blood came, and -clasped her white hands until a ring I had given her marked her -tender fingers; and then remembering it, she tore it off, cast it at -my feet, and after giving me one long glance of anguish and reproval, -tottered away home; and I, my heart burning with shame, shot my -shallop out into the stream, and pulled away from the spot like a -madman! - -'"She is young, poor girl, and will get over it," thought I; while to -nerve myself I conjured up the presence of Blanche Gordon in all her -imperial beauty, while, ingrate that I was! she that I had just left -possessed and showed all the qualities that win love--and that love -had, upon a mere pretence, been coldly and abruptly thrust back upon -her heart. - -'The black "morrow" of her prophetic song had come indeed, and an -idol had been robbed of its truth. - -'She was helpless to avenge herself, suffering and so beautiful; so I -prayed that God might strengthen her, until some other love consoled -her for the loss of mine: and even the thought of that stung me. - -'"Yes, yes," thought I, "if so ready to love me, she will with equal -facility learn to love another." - -'There was no jealousy in the heart of Annabelle, for she knew -nothing of any rival; but she was tormented by a sensation of -loneliness and utter desolation by day and night, and disappointment -was not the least element of that torment. But her time of vengeance -was at hand. - -'Next day saw me at Rothiemay, and at the feet, if I may say so, of -Blanche Gordon, who received me with one of her usual bewitching -smiles. My proposal certainly pleased and agitated her, but she told -me with considerable confidence and coolness that she was engaged to -another, and, indeed, was to be married in three weeks! - -'The hollow damsel of fashion had thrown me over for a well-gilded -coronet, just as I had thrown over--but coarsely and -suspiciously--the girl who only loved me better than I deserved, and -whose sweet society I now missed fearfully. - -'But I was justly punished, you will say; yet the story does not end -here. - -'Some weeks after, when family misfortunes came upon me, and I was -compelled to sell out--to leave the Lancers--impelled I know not by -what emotion or motive, unless it were something like force of habit -and a restless craving, I roamed towards the old trysting-place, -beneath the silver birches. - -'Things of love and joy seldom repeat themselves, but my heart leaped -on seeing Annabelle seated on the bank of the stream, half hidden by -the wild rose-trees. Thither, no doubt, to torment her own heart, -she had perhaps been in the habit of repairing to dream over the love -that would never come again. She seemed lost in thought, and neither -saw nor heard my approach; and I saw the sunlight flashing on the -bright, soft, golden hair, amid which my fingers had so often strayed. - -'"Annabelle!" said I softly; and she sprang up with a nervous start. -"You see I am here again, to crave your pardon and to thank God that -life has yet something worth living for--your love, Annabelle!" - -'"And yours?" she said disdainfully; then her fortitude gave way, and -for a moment she hid her burning face and her hot tears in her white -and wasted hands, which, when I attempted to take them, repelled mine. - -'"I will try to atone for the past, Annabelle--forgive me," said I, -humbly. - -'"I do forgive you," she replied with sudden calmness, grace, and a -bearing of dignity I had never before seen in her; "but you can never -be to me what you have been. You were the very idol of my heart, and -with all my soul I worshipped you, Leslie; but that is ended now and -for ever." - -'"If a life of devotion, Annabelle----" - -'"Say no more--I will not listen." - -'"You decline my love, because ruin has come upon me at the hands of -others, and I am compelled to leave the Lancers?" - -'Her eyes flashed, yet not with anger, and her bosom heaved, as she -replied: - -'"I grieve for what you say; and God knows it is not so--but for the -manner in which you reproached me with unwomanly conduct, that roused -my proper pride. I did love you tenderly, purely, passionately, -then; but in repelling you, my conduct at least is womanly now! -Farewell then, for ever; we leave this place to-morrow." - -'"For where?" - -'"That can be a matter of no interest to you, Captain Fotheringhame," -she replied, turning to retire. - -'"Do not let us part thus, Annabelle. It is for your sake as much as -my own that I sue thus." - -'She crested up her little head haughtily. - -'"Believe in my love," I urged. - -'"I neither believe in it, nor want it--now at least." - -'"How pitiless you are!" I exclaimed. - -'"Just as you were; so to part is best for us both. I once dreamt of -being only too happy; I am sadly awake now." - -'Our eyes met for the last time: the expression of hers was -passionless and decided. I had nothing to hope from her; but I -sighed deeply, with sorrow, pique, and even jealousy, as I watched -her departing steps and saw the last flutter of her skirt between the -stems of the silver birches, and then pulled slowly away from the -trysting-place, never to seek it again! - -'I can remember yet how the woods and lawns along the river's bank -looked dreamily indistinct in the evening haze, as I pulled slowly -and sadly homeward. - -'Never since, till you spoke of her, have I heard aught of Annabelle -Erroll, but I have since had reason to believe that she heard, in -time, of my affair with Blanche Gordon.' - -So all this story of Leslie Fotheringhame's was the secret so -skilfully concealed under the calm exterior of the beautiful blonde -whom Cecil Falconer had met at Eaglescraig. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -HOPES AND FEARS. - -'That was the way our affair of the heart came about, and was ended -by my pride, vacillation, and suspicion,' said Fotheringhame; 'and -now I have little doubt that she is quite aware that I--the Lancer -lover--was her cousin, though I never told her so.' - -'How odd of you to act so!' exclaimed Cecil. - -'Odd--I was mad, I think!' - -'From her manner and words, I thought that you and she possessed in -common some mysterious antecedents.' - -'An unpleasant way of putting it,' said Fotheringhame, with a shade -of annoyance in his face; 'all that time was one of gloom to me. -When I had to leave the Lancers I shall never forget the shock it -gave me--though of course expected--to see the 'Army List' without my -name in it; nor was I ever satisfied till I saw it there again, as a -Cameronian. So you see, Falconer, that with all my general -heedlessness of bearing, my life has not been without "its little -romance, as most lives have, between the age of teetotum and -tobacco," as George Eliot has it.' - -'I may yet be the means of relighting this old flame again,' said -Falconer; 'though it is said that there is nothing so difficult to -revive as an old flirtation.' - -'It was no flirtation----' - -'Save in so far as you were concerned.' - -'Until I lost Annabelle, I never knew how much I loved her, and how -dear she was to me.' - -'If Annabelle Erroll ever loved you she loves you still.' - -'Why do you think so?' - -'Because true love never dies,' said Falconer enthusiastically, for -his mind was full of Mary's image; 'and I can now recall much that -was strange in her mode and manner, if I mentioned you -incidentally--of which I thought nothing then, but to which you have -now given me a clue.' - -'For all that you can tell, Falconer, she may only remember me with -hatred, therefore it were better to forget the past and all about it. -After confiding the matter to my two other friends--a quiet weed and -M. de Cognac--I'll turn in, and so good-night.' - -Most uneventfully passed the early days of spring, to Falconer, in -the solitary castle of Dumbarton, which shoots up abruptly from a -flat level, and stands completely isolated, the most prominent and -picturesque object amid the beautiful scenery of the blue and -majestic Clyde, into the channel of which it projects--a channel -through the clear waters of which on a calm day, one may see whole -forests of luxuriant seaweed, waving fathoms deep below. - -Perched in the hollow or rift between the two great volcanic peaks -into which this singular, mitre-shaped rock is cleft--the highest -being five hundred and sixty feet in height--the old-fashioned -barracks contain accommodation for only about a company of soldiers, -and an ancient armoury (among the stores of which is the blade of -Wallace's sword, fitted with a new hilt of a later period), and which -is still identified as having been the prison of the Scottish -Patriot, after his betrayal by the infamous Menteith. The -circumstance of his sword having a hilt more modern than the blade, -has led to its identity being doubted by those who are ignorant of -the fact, that in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer in 1505, we -find mention made of the 'binding of Wallas's sword (in the castle of -Dumbarton) with cords of silk and a _new hilt_ and plomet (pommel), -new skabbard and new belt to the said sword, xxvj sh.' - -The entrance to the castle is by a barrier-gate at the foot of the -rock and fronting the south east. It is defended by ramparts and -guns, and immediately within it are the officers' quarters. A steep -flight of stone steps gives access to the barracks, the well, and -other batteries; from whence, and especially from Wallace's Seat--the -highest peak of this stupendous rock--and the circular Roman tower, -or fragment, perchance, of the days when Balclutha was the abode of -Roderick Hael 'the Generous,' there is a glorious panorama of -scenery: the far expanse of the Clyde, the sylvan vale of the Leven, -the vast blue mass of Ben Lomond and the mountains of Arrochar, their -peaks sometimes veiled in silvery mist. - -On the giddy summit Falconer lingered for many an hour, and fancied -he could see, more than twenty miles distant, as the crow flies, the -hills that looked down upon Eaglescraig. There, when Fotheringhame -was absent on some duty or pleasure, he smoked many a solitary -havanna in solitude, in the evening and the gloaming, conversing in -imagination with Mary Montgomerie, with a fond enthusiasm and a -passion inflamed by obstacles and opposition, long after the shadows -had deepened in the vale of the Leven, and all around beneath the -rocks; after the drum had beaten tattoo, and the lights of the last -ocean-bound steamers had faded out beyond the point of Ardmore. - -Then he would skilfully torment himself by recalling all that Mrs. -Garth, with the best intentions in the world, had said concerning -what Sir Piers would be certain to insist upon and carry out--the -union of Mary Montgomerie, the heiress, with his own heir of entail; -and well Falconer knew how Sir Piers would view his own slender means -and want of family rank. And though he hoped much, he could not know -how, in the secrecy of her own room, and in the long hours of 'the -stilly night,' Mary treasured the memory of the few precious moments -spent in the grotto, and thought of him and him only--of the -influence he had exerted over her when present, and the memory he had -left of himself when gone. - -At times there was in his manner a passionate dejection, which quite -bewildered and provoked the more matter-of-fact Leslie Fotheringhame. - -''Pon my soul, old fellow, you're in a bad way,' the latter sometimes -said; 'you can't live on this Mary Montgomerie, and nothing but Mary -Montgomerie! You must get up a relish for something else when the -drum beats for mess, or we shall soon have you on the doctor's list.' - -So the days and weeks went by till the middle of March came. Six -weeks had elapsed since he left Eaglescraig--six centuries, -apparently, as lovers count their time! - -The few words so hastily spoken in the grotto were deeply graven in -his memory, and graven, too, was the kiss--the unpremeditated -kiss--pressed so passionately on her unresisting lips. It seemed to -haunt him with joy, for ever and aye. - -'If she loves me, as I know she does,' he often thought, 'I am a fool -not to carry her off in defiance of her guardian and all the world. -Heaven knows, it is not her fortune I value, but of course that -charitable world would think otherwise, though it is entirely in the -hands of Sir Piers.' - -After the impression made upon him at his departure from Eaglescraig, -he felt that he could go back there on no pretence whatever, as no -welcome, save from one, would await him, and another invitation would -never be accorded. He knew that too well. - -Times there were when he threw open his desk, and thought he would -write to the general on the subject nearest his heart, at all -hazards, and cast himself upon his generosity; and then hope died, -and his courage failed, as he remembered his own slender exchequer, -his humble rank, apart from his commission, and the general's -inordinate pride of birth and value of long descent. - -So he dared not write to Eaglescraig, and from thence came no word, -no news, or sign. - -He remembered how Mary had, with much agitation, interrupted his -suggestion that he should tell Sir Piers of his love for her. What -did she mean, then, unless it were her dread of the latter's power -and influence over her, and his future plans with reference to Hew? - -But what would he have thought, what would his emotions have been, -and how great his indignation, had he known how, thanks to the -malignity and perfidy of that personage, the good old general, a -mirror of honour himself, viewed him as a trickster at cards, and a -scandal to the uniform he wore! Had Falconer been aware of this -circumstance, it would simply have maddened him; but fortunately for -himself, and the bones of Mr. Hew Caddish Montgomerie, he knew -nothing of it. - -He was roused from cogitations such as these by an order which -recalled the detachment to headquarters. - -'We start for Edinburgh to-morrow, Fotheringhame,' he cried, hurrying -into his friend's room. - -'Hurrah!' responded the latter, springing up; 'thank heaven we are to -quit this dull hole! The scenery, of course, is picturesque, and all -that sort of thing, but the picturesque, is not in my line. The -weekly assemblies and all the gaieties are on just now in 'Scotia's -darling seat,' and the regimental ball will soon be coming off, so, -with genuine satisfaction, I hail the order to rejoin at last. Well, -it is a jolly change, anyway.' - -And as such, Cecil welcomed it too, though it increased the distance -between himself and Eaglescraig, and he could little foresee the -calamities that awaited him in Edinburgh, and the crisis that would -come in his affairs. - -The departure of the detachment was not so duly chronicled in the -local prints as its arrival had been; thus Mary knew nothing of -Falconer's movements. - -In her own heart she fully conceived herself to be engaged--tacitly -engaged--to him, and loved to think she was so. Long engagements are -perilous things, even when the pair can see each other at will, or -freely correspond, daily or even weekly; tiffs and petty quarrels, -even little bitternesses, may come to pass that weaken regard, unless -they be like 'lovers' quarrels, love renewed:' but such a tie as that -which existed between Falconer and Mary Montgomerie--never hearing of -each other, and debarred all correspondence, having only hope for an -anchor, was altogether peculiar in its features. - -'She is always sad and weary now, Sir Piers,' said Mrs. Garth one -day; 'weary at night, and weary at morning, though she tries to -conceal it, or deceive us, by occasional bursts of gaiety.' - -'Poor little fool! Her mind is still running on that fellow whom I -should never have brought to Eaglescraig. But, with all Hew's faults -of temper and so forth, she had better think of him and my wishes, -Mrs. Garth; so lead her up to it, for that is our _point d'appui_,' -replied the general. - -'By Jove!' said the amiable Hew, with one of his ugly grimaces, 'she -has no more brains than a hen pheasant, I think, to sit as she does -all day long looking like a sick monkey.' - -Meanwhile Hew was having no better success with his wooing, a fact -which was the more perplexing and even harassing now, as he had -resigned his Indian Civil Service appointment, and had no dependence, -save upon the purse of Sir Piers, who, as the former grudgingly -thought, seemed likely to live for ever; and who hoped, and indeed -never doubted, that when Mary got over her girlish fancy for Cecil -Falconer all things would come right in the end; and to change the -scene, as the Edinburgh season was then in its flush, Sir Piers -removed his entire household from Eaglescraig to his town residence -at the west end of the grey metropolis of the north, a few days after -Falconer's detachment had quitted the castle of Dumbarton. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -THE CAMERONIANS. - -It was the morning after Cecil Falconer's detachment had come in to -headquarters overnight. - -In the mess-room about a dozen officers in their blue patrol jackets, -all more or less good-looking, even handsome young fellows, each and -all having a certain joyous and straightforwardness of manner, were -at breakfast, singly or in groups, and all greeted Falconer and -Fotheringhame warmly, for both were prime favourites with the corps, -and there was much shaking of hands and slapping on the back, with -'Welcome, old fellow!' 'How goes it?' and so forth, while an aroma -of coffee and devilled bones pervaded the long room which had windows -at each end, and where each officer seemed to be economising time, by -reading during the meal, with a daily paper or comic serial--_Punch_, -of course--propped against his coffee-pot or sugar-basin. All were -discussing the repast in haste, as the hour of morning parade was -close at hand. - -'Here you are again, Falconer and Fotheringhame!' cried one; 'the -Damon and Pythias--the David and Jonathan of the Cameronians! The -very men we wanted; you have just come in time for the ball -committee!' - -'Heard the good news, Falconer, old fellow?' asked Dick Freeport. - -'No--what is it? One of the three girls you proposed to accepted -you?' said Falconer, leisurely tapping an egg. - -'Ah, you've heard that story; nothing so stupid. But is it possible -you don't know?' - -'What?' - -'That your name is in the _Gazette_; but here you are, as large as -life,' added Freeport, reading aloud: '"Lieutenant Cecil Falconer to -be Captain, vice Brevet Major Balerno seconded for service on the -Staff." I congratulate you.' - -'And so do we all!' cried Acharn, a frank, jolly captain, though not -yet eight-and-twenty. - -'Thanks; I knew not that Balerno was leaving us so soon,' said -Falconer, whose first thoughts were of Mary Montgomerie. - -'This will rouse your spirits,' resumed Freeport. - -'Do they want rousing?' - -'Well, you looked rather glum last night. Been spoony on some girl -in the West, I suppose?' - -'Perhaps I was,' replied Cecil, laughing, with a chivalrous idea that -to deny his secret love might prove that he was not worthy of it; -'you know that I varied the tedium of country quarters by a visit to -the general--old Sir Piers Montgomerie. But I wish you would fall in -love, in downright earnest, yourself, Freeport.' - -'What harm have I done you that you should wish me this, Falconer?' -asked Dick, drily. - -'Any fine girls there--at the general's, I mean?' asked a cheeky -young sub, of Falconer, who coloured with annoyance, though the -boy--a man in his own estimation and that of fast chums, touting -tradesmen and money-lenders--was but a boy after all. 'I have heard -that his niece, or grand-niece rather, is a stunner. By Jove, he -grows absolutely red! Were you writing verses to her eyebrows, and -sighing like a furnace, Falconer?' - -'You would have sighed like two or three had _you_ tried the -process,' said Falconer, turning away. - -'I do wish you joy, Falconer,' said his friend Fotheringhame, in a -low voice; 'and your promotion puts me one step nearer the rank I -held when I first knew Annabelle Erroll, and--and--well, played the -fool, or worse!' - -Cecil thought, would Mary see the _Gazette_? The general, he knew, -was certain to do so; and Mrs. Garth too, who read it as regularly as -an old Chelsea pensioner; but neither might speak of the event, or -deem it wise to revive his name at Eaglescraig. - -Falconer was somewhat of a pet among the Cameronians. Excellence in -all manly sports ever makes a British officer a favourite with his -men; thus, as Falconer could keep a wicket well, was also a prime -bowler, a good horseman (though he generally owed his mounts to a -friend), and could pull a good oar; moreover, as he joined his men in -many a match at tennis, football and shinty, he was popular with -them, and the eyes of his company seemed to brighten that morning -when he came upon parade, and discipline alone repressed the -inclination to give him something like a hearty cheer, and for nearly -each and all he had some kind word or inquiry--for the officers and -men of a regiment should ever feel as one large family. 'Their hopes -and fears are similar,' says a writer; 'their turns of exile will -come at the same time. Their good and bad quarters will be enjoyed -and endured together, and each one shares, in common with the rest, -the proud privilege of perchance some day furnishing in his own -person that billet to which, the proverb tell us, every bullet is -entitled, or of being "wiped out" by sickness in some pestilential -clime, or of going down to the bottom of the sea in some rotten old -transport. There is something in their order--a distinctiveness, a -speciality about it--which makes them cling together, and stand by -one another all the faster; for, although mixing freely with the -outer world, there is yet an inner one that is entirely their own.' - -All troops like Edinburgh, and the national regiments, from their -popularity, more than all. The regimental ball was on the tapis when -Falconer and his friend rejoined, and nothing else was spoken of in -the fortress, or the gay circle outside it; for the corps, as a -national and ancient one, was deservedly popular in the Scottish -metropolis, the gay season of which is during the winter, and ends -with the opening of summer--a metropolis where the people are all -devoted to music and song, and where dancing is a passion with all -classes and ages, so that even a baby has been taken from its cradle, -that the boast might be fulfilled of _four_ generations being on the -floor at once. - -'Our regimental hop will be _the_ ball of the season,' said Freeport; -'so I am glad you have come back, Falconer: the committee could never -have done without you. But once it is over, I fear there will be a -general flight from town, and we shall be reduced to the melancholy -promenade of the Scottish Academy.' - -'Is it open?' - -'Yes, with the usual kit-kats of local nonentities, and the -invariable yearly amount of Bass Rock, Ben Lomond, and the Water of -Leith, without which no exhibition of pictures here would be -complete.' - -So Falconer and Fotheringhame were put on the ball committee, and -became forthwith immersed in programmes, invitation lists, and -interviews with Herr Von Humstrumm, the German bandmaster, the -quarter-master and messman. - -The castle of Edinburgh may well be deemed the cradle of the -Cameronian Regiment, which received its first 'baptism of fire' amid -the fierce and protracted siege endured there by the loyal and -gallant Duke of Gordon in 1689. The corps, though now Cameronians -but in name, have in that title a glorious inheritance of Scottish -and military history, that springs from Richard Cameron's bloody -grave in lone and wild Airs Moss, where he fell with Bible and sword -in hand, in defence of an 'oppressed Kirk and broken Covenant,' and -fell bravely, with his face to the enemy, in July, 1680. As a ballad -says: - - 'Oh, weary, weary was the lot of Scotland's true ones then, - A famine-stricken remnant with scarce the guise of men; - They burrowed, few and lonely, in the chill, dark mountain caves, - For those who once had sheltered them were in their martyr-graves!' - - -When the landing of William of Orange became known in the West of -Scotland, a great body of Cameronians assembled on a holm near the -village of Douglas, in Lanarkshire, and, to the number of some -thousands, joined the revolted troops who besieged King James's -garrison in Edinburgh Castle during the winter of 1688. Out of -these, two regiments, now respectively the 25th, and 26th or -Cameronians, were constituted in the March and April of the following -year. The latter stipulated that their officers should be -exclusively men 'such as, in conscience,' they could submit to, as -staunch Presbyterians, and great care was taken in the selection of -them, while an 'elder' was appointed to every company, so that the -whole battalion should be precisely under the moral discipline of a -parish, and a Bible formed a part of the necessaries in every -private's knapsack. 'It is impossible,' says the Domestic Annalist -of Scotland, 'to read the accounts that are given of this Cameronian -Regiment without sympathising with the earnestness of purpose, the -conscientious scruples and heroic feeling of self-devotion under -which it was established, and seeing in them demonstrations of what -is highest and best in the Scottish character.' - -Their first colonel was James, Earl of Angus, heir of the lordly line -of Douglas, who fell at their head in his twenty-second year, at -Steinkirk, but a mullet, or five pointed star, in memory of him, is -still one of the badges of the regiment. Their first -lieutenant-colonel, Clelland, an accomplished soldier and poet, who -had fought under the banner of the Covenant at Drumclog and Bothwell, -fell at their head, defending Dunkeld; and their first chaplain was -Alexander Shiells, a well-known Scottish divine. - -They were clad in red, faced with yellow, the royal colours of -Scotland; they wore yellow petticoat-breeches tied below the knee, -with monstrous periwigs, and hats of the Monmouth cock, and small -Geneva bands at the neck. The captains wore gold-coloured -breastplates; those of the lieutenants were of white, and the ensigns -of black steel. A proportion of pikemen and halberdiers were in -every company, and the bayonets were still cross-hilted daggers, till -the socket-bayonet, first adopted by the 25th, or Edinburgh Regiment, -was introduced by its colonel, Maxwell, in Flanders. - -The Cameronians fought with valour and distinction in the wars of -William and Anne; James, Earl of Stair, commanded them in the year of -the union, and 1720 saw them at Minorca, under Philip Anstruther of -that Ilk, three of whose family have been at their head. Under -Preston of Valleyfield they fought valiantly in the American War, and -how their major, the unfortunate André, perished is well-known to the -historical reader. John Lord Elphinstone led them on the plains of -Egypt, and Colonel William Maxwell amid the horrors of the retreat to -Corunna. In China, under Colonel Mountain, than whom no better or -braver officer ever wore scarlet, they won the dragon which adorns -their colours, and the scene of their last active service was amid -the arid mountains of Abyssinia. And now, as the Cameronians were -originally mustered on the holm of Douglas, they are, at this day, -linked in brigade with the Lanarkshire Militia. - -Though changed in character and impulse, the regiment is 'the -Cameronians' still; but its ranks are no longer manned by the sturdy -Covenanters--'men who prayed bare-headed as the troopers of -Claverhouse aimed at their hearts--prayed a prayer begun on earth and -ended in heaven!' - -Local and national regard for the corps caused, we have said, a deep -interest to be taken in the forthcoming regimental ball; but, while -working on the committee therefor, Cecil Falconer could little -foresee the effect that festive occasion was to have on his future -career. - -He felt his hand actually tremble as he addressed the invitation -cards, handsomely embossed with the crested sphinx of the regiment, -to Eaglescraig, for the general and his family. He knew that the -former would be certain to appear, but felt doubts if Mary -Montgomerie would be permitted to accept for herself; and great was -his surprise and joy when, next day, acceptances came promptly from -Sir Piers for Mary, Miss Erroll, and Hew Montgomerie, dated, not from -Eaglescraig, but from the general's town residence at the west-end of -the city. - -_She_ was to be in Edinburgh for the remainder of the season; balls, -assemblies, drums, and parties at which they would be sure to meet, -were before her and Falconer, and he contemplated the coming weeks as -being pregnant with every enjoyment, with many a charm and source of -pleasure. - -And greater would his present joy have been had he known how Mary -treasured the invitation his hand had addressed, with a wistful -yearning for his presence, for the pressure of his hands, and the -sound of his love-words over again. For since his advent at -Eaglescraig, Mary had begun a new existence--a new life of -self-devotion and romance. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -THE PROGRESS OF EVENTS. - -'A company--I am a captain now!' thought Cecil, as he sat alone in -his quarters one evening. Promotion brought him, he hoped, a little -nearer _her_; but she was far off from him still, by her surroundings -and the influences that were brought to bear upon her. - -He recalled the words of a writer who says: 'When a young man wants -to marry a girl, he has already made up his mind that she is worthy -of him, otherwise he would not wish to marry her. The next thing to -do is to make a rigid cross-examination of himself, and see whether -he is worthy of her.' Falconer did so, and, of course, deemed -himself immeasurably the inferior of Mary, but more than all in -worldly prospects and even social position, albeit that he was now a -captain of the Cameronians; and yet only that evening, in the -mess-room, he had heard rattling Dick Freeport say, that it was 'the -duty of every man wearing a red coat to hook an heiress, if he wanted -one.' - -He looked around the room in which he sat, his 'quarters,' and -smiled, in spite of himself, as he mentally contrasted its -appurtenances--its 'fixings,' as the Americans say--with such as were -deemed absolutely necessary to the existence of one so refined as -Mary Montgomerie, and he began to surmise whether or not his love was -a selfish one. - -The bare floor, scrubbed, however, as clean as his servant, Tommy -Atkins, could make it, the walls white-washed, and liable to impart -their tint to everything that came in contact with them; a couple of -Windsor chairs; a table liable to unpleasant collapses, especially if -sat upon, as it often was; an iron camp-bed, wherein to dream of Mary -and glory, with a strip of carpet, as a luxury, by its side; a -washstand that took the form of a square box when the route came; a -tin tub, tilted up on end in a corner; an iron coal-box, or scuttle, -royally marked with 'V.R.' and an imperial crown; a fire-grate full -of torn billets and cigar-ends; a rack containing sticks, whips, a -couple of swords; a little narrow mantelpiece, littered with pipes, -cigars, and havanna boxes; but no flowers, and not a single pretty -knickknack suggestive of female influences were there. Destitute of -all ornament, it was essentially a man's apartment--a very -barrack-room. - -Yet some feminine memorials of 'auld lang syne' were not wanting; for -in Cecil's most secret repositories were the treasured letters of his -mother, her photos, a lock of her dark hair, thickly silvered with -white, and a bunch of withered daisies that he had gathered on her -grave, which she had found in a distant land--mementoes treasured all -the more that the story of her life had been a sad one. - -If the interior of Cecil's apartment was plain to excess, the view -from its windows was second to none in the world. On one side, far -down below, spread the Edina of the Georgian and Victorian ages; on -the other towered up Dunedin, grey and grim, in all the dead majesty -of a grand, historical, and royal past--the Dunedin of battle and -siege, yet instinct with life and vitality in all its pulses still; -and far, far away, to where the golden sun was setting at the gates -of the west, spread the wondrous landscape, till the green Ochil -ranges and the pale blue cone of Ben Lomond, sixty miles distant, -closed it in. - -And anon, when darkness falls, more wondrous still is the beauty of -the scene when the broken masses and spiky ridges of the old town -sparkle with ten thousand lights. 'High in air a bridge leaps the -chasm between,' wrote one who knew it well; 'a few emerald lamps, -like glow-worms, are moving about in the railway station below, while -a solitary crimson one is at rest. That ridged bulk of blackness, -with splendour bursting out at every pore, is the wonderful Old Town -where Scottish history mainly transacted itself, while opposite the -modern Princes Street is blazing throughout its length. During the -day the castle looks down upon the city, as if out of another world; -stern with all its peacefulness, its garniture of trees, its slopes -of grass. The rock is dingy enough in colour, but after a shower its -lichens laugh out greenly in the returning sun, while the rainbow is -brightening on the lowering sky beyond. How deep the shadow which -the castle throws at noon over the gardens at its feet, where the -children play! How grand when giant bulk and towering crown blacken -against the sunset!' - -Gazing dreamily from his window, Cecil sat lost in thought, with a -note in his hand--the acceptance to the ball invitation--a note -written, he knew, by the hand of Mary, and which he had rescued from -Dick Freeport, who was sacrilegiously about to tear and toss it into -the waste-paper basket; and at the time we may suppose that our lover -felt as Sir Robert Cotton did when he rescued the original Magna -Charta from the shears of the Cockney tailor, who was about to cut it -into yard-measures for doublets and trunk hose. - -But Cecil roused himself when the drums beat on the slope below the -citadel gate, and donning his mess-dress, he betook him to the -dinner-table, where the trophied silver plate added splendour to -luxury. - -'So, as the general is in town, you'll leave a card, of course, -Falconer,' said Fotheringhame, with a peculiar smile, as Cecil took a -seat by his side. - -'I am in duty bound to do so; though, sooth to say,' added Falconer, -for their confidences had become mutual, 'the coldness that -accompanied my departure from Eaglescraig gives me unpleasant doubts -of my reception; yet leave a card, of course, I must.' - -Then he thought of Mary on the morning he came away, and the farewell -wave of her handkerchief. - -'If I call, Fotheringhame, won't you accompany me?' - -'Thanks; no. Old fellow, you forget.' - -'What?' - -'That Miss Erroll's acceptance for the ball came from the general's -house.' - -'A pleasant place it will be to visit,' said Dick Freeport, striking -into the conversation from the opposite side of the table. 'I have -had Falconer's confidential report on the subject; he states that the -general's cellar is excellent, the sherry pale and dry, the old port -full-bodied, the Chateau Lagrange unequalled, and Moët's Imperial -ditto! His cook is a regular French _chef_, with a salary that -exceeds the pay of Sir Piers himself, no doubt; and then there is his -ward----' - -'Halt, Dick! how your tongue runs on!' said Cecil, with some -annoyance. 'His ward is not to be lightly spoken of at any -mess-table--ours especially.' - -'I saw the general's carriage to-day in George Street,' cried a -cheeky sub-lieutenant from the lower end of the table. 'I knew it by -the coat-of-arms; and, by Jove, there were two stunning girls in it!' - -'Miss Montgomerie and her friend Miss Erroll, no doubt,' said -Fotheringhame. 'One dark--a brunette, and the other brilliantly -fair?' - -'Exactly; I took stock of them both. Dick will be bringing his -engagement-ring with the blue stone into action now.' - -As this was a regimental joke it caused a little laugh, amid which -Acharn, the sporting man of the corps, came in hastily in his -mess-jacket and vest, looking rather grim and cross. - -'Late for mess, old man,' said Fotheringhame. 'What is up, eh?' - -'Wine!' said Acharn sharply, to a waiter, and then replied: 'Only -that I am rather up a tree just now.' - -'You are rather fond of climbing,' said Fotheringhame. 'Is it lofty?' - -'Lofty as a Himalayan pine, by Jove! I say, Falconer, you were at -the general's place, Eaglescraig--or what's its name?' - -'Yes.' - -'Was there a fellow named Hew Montgomerie there?' - -'Yes.' - -'Hew Caddish Montgomerie, as his pasteboard has it--he is well named! -and from whom you won at cards?' - -'No; but who utterly rooked me at cards!' said Falconer angrily, -while he and Fotheringhame exchanged glances. - -'Well, I met him at the United Service Club this afternoon, though he -is not a member. We somehow got into play, and I have lost enough to -make my governor pull a very long face when he comes to hear of it--a -cool £500. He is a fellow whose shifty eyes and thin lips often -smile, but never in unison?' - -'I know that his face never wears an expression of manly truth--for -truth isn't in him!' said Falconer. - -'The fellow is a downright cad, I understand,' said Fotheringhame; -'he will go to the devil with the down-train, and never know how to -put on the brakes. Why were you fool enough to play with a stranger?' - -'And lose?' said Acharn, twisting his thick black moustache. - -'By all accounts it would be a miracle if you won.' - -'He has promised me my revenge to-morrow.' - -'At what game was it you lost £500?' asked Fotheringhame. - -'At roulette, piquet, and écarté; but most at écarté.' - -'By Jove! I should think so,' said Falconer, remembering Hew's 'mild -play.' 'Why didn't you look under the table?' he asked in a low voice. - -'For what?' exclaimed Acharn, with surprise. - -'The cards he was dropping unknown to you.' - -'Good heavens, do you say so!' - -'Why, the fellow's a regular leg!' said Fotheringhame; but Falconer -contented himself by saying: - -'Your promised revenge will never come. Next time he asks you to -play, decline, and say you do so by my advice--_mine_--don't forget.' - -Acharn did so, and the fact did not increase Master Hew's goodwill to -Falconer; but little indeed could the latter guess how the good old -general had been led to view _him_. - -A favourite with the entire regiment he was known to be, even to the -very school-children; thus it was with some surprise the -commanding-officer, some days after, heard the remarks of the general -at the club, made privately to himself, however. - -'I have to thank you, Sir Piers,' said the lieutenant-colonel, 'for -extending the hospitality of your house to one of the best of my -officers.' - -'Best--the smartest, perhaps you mean?' said Sir Piers, coldly. - -'Smartest and best!' replied the lieutenant-colonel, emphatically. - -'Sorry to hear it, sir; sorry to hear it. When we were cantonned at -Jodpore----' - -'Excuse me, Sir Piers; but I do not understand.' - -'He is too fond of cards, sir--too fond of cards for my taste, sir.' - -'I never saw a card in his hand!' persisted the other. - -'Strange!' - -The lieutenant-colonel thought these remarks more than strange, too; -but Sir Piers did not choose to inform him of Hew's malevolent -reports, and plunged at once into sundry reminiscences of Jodpore and -its Rajpoots. - -Mary would certainly be the queen of the forthcoming regimental ball, -and Falconer was full of the most delightful anticipations concerning -it. - -'Leslie Fotheringhame will be there!' was the secret thought of -Annabelle Erroll; 'how _are_ we to meet? As strangers? Would that I -had not come to Edinburgh at all--and yet!' - -Yet--what? She scarcely knew. - -Mary was in full anticipation also of the ball--its joys and its -brilliance, and nightly laid her head on the pillow to sleep and -dream, if she could, of a region where all was romance, light and -splendour, bands of music, festooned banners and brilliant uniforms, -with one central figure--Cecil Falconer! - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE OLD STORY AGAIN. - -It may easily be supposed that Cecil Falconer did not lose much time -in paying what was to pass ostensibly as a ceremonious visit to Sir -Piers Montgomerie's family. Evening parade was over, when he quitted -the fortress in a carefully assorted suit of mufti, and betook him to -the north-western quarter of the New Town, in one of the most -fashionable streets of which stood the stately house of the general, -in a situation of wonderfully picturesque beauty, overlooking the -deep ravine through which the Leith flows under a noble bridge of -three arches, each of which is ninety-six feet in span. - -On one side stands an ancient tolbooth, with crow-stepped gables; on -the other, a steep green bank crowned by a beautiful church and -stately crescent. Between these yawns the rocky ravine, wherein lie -an old bridge of other days, and a cluster of quaint mills and -dwellings, and the river roaring in snow-white foam over a broad and -lofty weir; the whole place having in all its features a marvellous -resemblance to the Spanish village of Banos in Leon. - -And now, when Falconer stood upon the threshold of the mansion, there -flashed upon his mind the recollection that on this very day it was -that his father and mother had both died--the latter on the -anniversary of the former's demise, eighteen years before; thus he -doubted whether he had chosen a fortunate time, for it has truly been -said, that there are certain moods of the human mind in which we -cannot help ascribing 'an ominous importance to any remarkable -coincidence wherein things of moment are concerned;' and he was in -this mood then. - -In obedience to the sonorous bell, the double-door was thrown open, -revealing one of those spacious entrance-halls peculiar to Scottish -houses, with tiger-skins--some of Sir Piers' Indian spoils--and -Persian rugs covering the length of its tesselated floor, and marble -pedestals with tall Chinese and Japanese vases standing on either -side. - -The general had gone to his club, in Queen Street; Mrs. Garth and -Miss Erroll were out in the carriage, but were expected back soon; -Miss Montgomerie was at home. So said the valet, who remembered -Falconer, and smiled a welcome to him, but said nothing of the -whereabouts of Hew, who was a favourite with none. - -Mary was then at home, and perhaps alone, so Cecil's heart beat -lightly and happily as he was ushered into the stately double -drawing-room, which had hangings of rose-coloured silk laced with -white, and was stately with crystal chandeliers, Venetian mirrors, -cabinets of rare china, statuettes, and gems of art in the way of -pictures and jars, amid which the eyes of Falconer saw only Mary -Montgomerie--Mary seated near an antique tripod table, whereon was -set out the dainty Wedgewood china for five o'clock tea, and varying -her time between knitting soft woollen socks for some old cotter of -Eaglescraig, and gazing from the window on the buds of spring that -were bursting in the warm sunshine, and the sweet flowers that made -the parterres gay; but she started from her chair when the servant -announced, - -'Captain Falconer.' - -She repeated the name mechanically, and grew very pale as she -presented her hand. - -'Do not call me "captain,"' urged Cecil, retaining it, while the -thoughts of both went naturally back to their last meeting in the -grotto, and the avowal made then; and Mary grew shy in manner, for -she had been haunted by a dread lest her wave of the handkerchief to -Cecil on his departure from Eaglescraig had been unladylike, though -Annabelle assured her that, after all that had passed, any young girl -would have done precisely the same. - -'But you _are_ a captain now,' she said, smiling; 'and I congratulate -you upon the circumstance. It has given me real pleasure, you may be -well assured.' - -'I thank you, from my heart,' replied Cecil, and she withdrew her -hand, while he was longing to take up the links of the old story, -gathering even courage from the omen that Snarley, in a new blue and -silver collar, with his mistress's monogram and a bell, barked, -whimpered, and frisked about him with delight. - -Snarley had an undoubted propensity for worrying rats in the stable -court, under the auspices of Hew Montgomerie and Pate Pastern, the -head-groom; also proclivities for the kitchen and low life generally: -but here he was in the drawing-room to welcome the visitor. - -'You knew I would call?' said Falconer, after a pause. - -'I--hoped you would,' said Mary, timidly. - -'You did!' he exclaimed in a low voice, as he started to her side. -'Oh, my darling!' - -'Yes--of course,' replied Mary faintly, and blushing deeply now, as -he took both her hands in his and gazed into her eyes with passionate -tenderness; and somehow it came speedily to pass that as they stood -so near, they were posed like the Black Brunswicker and his love, or -the Huguenot and his guardian angel, in the well-known pictures; but -if the pose was delicious, the speeches that accompanied it were a -little fatuous and incoherent. - -After a time, Falconer, still holding her in his embrace and gazing -tenderly into her upturned eyes, made the somewhat prosaic request: - -'You will keep some round dances for me at the ball, of course, -darling?' - -'Gladly would I do so, dearest Cecil--but----' - -'But what, Mary love?' - -'I am under such supervision--Hew, for instance-- - -'It is intolerable!' said Falconer, as a gesture of impatience -escaped him. 'To love you, and say that I love you, dearest Mary, -means views of marriage, and the hope that you will be mine--mine for -ever, sweetest pet,' he continued, with infinite tenderness of tone -and manner, taking her little face between his hands, after the mode -of the pictured Huguenot; but Mary partially and nervously withdrew -from him. 'You are free, Mary, are you not?' he asked, with great -and sudden anxiety. - -There was no answer, and she seemed intently studying the pattern of -the carpet. - -'You are not, you cannot be, engaged?' he exclaimed in a low and -earnest voice, and dreading some change since they parted. - -'No, certainly--not of my own free will,' was her curious reply, -while tears trembled on her dark lashes. - -'How then?' - -'Mrs. Garth told you all, did she not?' - -'Do you know your own mind, Mary?' he asked, taking her caressingly -in his arms. - -'Yes,' said she, with a sob in her throat. - -'How is it to be, then?' - -There was no answer. - -'Mary!' - -She could scarcely have made any reply just then, as Cecil closed her -sweet lips most effectually. - -'Hew actually takes his position with me for granted,' said she, -after a little pause, with her head reclined on Cecil's shoulder. -'He is absurd, and insolent as a wooer, yet seems to think there is -no need for exerting himself to win a bride that is bestowed upon -him. He treats me as if I were his property--a gift from Sir Piers -in fact,' she continued with an angry little laugh. - -'And you, with all your beauty and wealth too, Mary, are to become -the sacrifice of an old man's ambition to endow his house, and a -young man's avarice! Oh, my darling, it is monstrous! and in this -age of the world, ridiculous too! But perhaps the good old general -may come round in time, and see the folly of his scheme.' - -She shook her head, and said brokenly: - -'You speak of wealth--I would I were penniless, for your sake; it is -as a millstone about my neck; I think papa's will was most -iniquitous!' - -Until Mary Montgomerie met and knew Cecil Falconer, she had lived -like the lady of Shalott, in a world of dreams--a young girl's dreams -of a lover; for even the advent of Hew as an admirer--an -intended--had certainly not embodied the idea to her. - -She had read in Byron that a woman's love was a woman's whole -existence, and such she would have made it now to herself; and -doubtless had Cecil chosen to exert the power he had over her heart, -and lured her, as one less scrupulous might have done, into risking -the _esclandre_, he would have persuaded her to defy Sir Piers and -fly with him; but he never for a moment entertained the idea of a -measure that would have been such injustice to herself, as it would -have involved the loss of her fortune, and perhaps its eventual -transference to Hew! - -Snarley now suddenly showed his teeth, as if to announce the approach -of the latter through the outer drawing-room, where it would almost -seem that he had been again an unseen listener, as at Eaglescraig. - -'_Petit chien!_' exclaimed Mary, as the Huguenot pose was suddenly -relinquished, and she snatched up her dog to kiss it; '_petit -chien_--dear wee doggie, don't be jealous of--oh, it's _you_, -Hew--how tiresome!' she added under her breath, as that personage -lounged upon the scene, and drily gave his cold, fishy hand to -Falconer. - -'Hew again!' thought Mary with a shiver of repugnance; and again, as -in the instance of the grotto, she marvelled, with intense annoyance, -how much he had overseen and overheard, and how long he had been _en -perdue_! - -Nearly ignoring the presence of Falconer, who assumed his hat and -gloves, he bowed coldly and said curtly: - -'I am about to have a canter down Granton way: will you join me, -Mary?' - -'I would rather be excused.' - -'Why?' - -'It is anything but a pretty road--all stone walls and no trees.' - -Hew scowled. The answer showed plainly that his company would not -compensate for the dulness of the road--'and before that fellow -Falconer, too!' - -'Annabelle will go, perhaps.' - -'She is out with the old soldier, Mrs. Garth.' - -'Hew?' she exclaimed, while with curiously-mingled emotions of -delight and annoyance, Falconer, deeming that the time had come to -depart, bowed himself out as Hew rang the bell. - -'Ha!' thought the latter, 'she will not ride with me, and she has not -driven out with them, so she expected this fellow! They have some -secret understanding unknown to Sir Piers, most certainly. But they -have not yet come to the third volume of their little romance!' - -Mary read his thoughts and suspicions in his face, and her heart -swelled with anger. - -'We must stop this nonsense, Hew--or you must, I mean,' said she -abruptly, and with flashing eyes. - -'Stop it?' - -'Yes, as I mean to be the mistress of my own actions; and the sooner -your interference with me ends, the better for us both.' - -'What do you mean?' - -'What I say, sir!' replied Mary desperately, and with tears in her -eyes as she swept from the room; for though she deferred to the years -and affection of Sir Piers, she was resolved now to have neither -mercy nor toleration for Hew, who eyed her malevolently as she -withdrew. - - -Sweet indeed had been the love-passage between these two--Cecil and -Mary--knitting their hearts closer together. Affection had been -ensured to the full and been accepted to the full; but no promise had -been given, and the future was vague as ever. - -Cecil had a species of rival in Hew, certainly; but one that, strange -to say, provoked no jealousy, anger, or sense of suspicion, though -there were the influence and authority of Sir Piers to dread, -together with what might be their ultimate result upon the gentle -nature of Mary, who might be bent to accept the fate intended for -her, as being but a portion of the inevitable. Besides, if the -regiment were ordered suddenly abroad, the chances of their ever -meeting again would be faint and few indeed. - -Though Hew, as we have already indicated, had no genuine love for -Mary, he fully appreciated the wonderful beauty of her person, and -endorsed to the full the general's desire that he should marry her, -and a creditable wife indeed she would be to the future baronet of -Eaglescraig; thus his piqued self-esteem and his avarice rendered him -secretly savage that he made worse than no progress with her in his -wooing. He felt as if placed in rather a ridiculous position with -his patron; and thus the whole tide of his venom flowed towards the -innocent Falconer, though the appearance of the latter on the scene -had not changed in the least degree Mary's views of him--Hew -Montgomerie. - -There was no open quarrel between the latter and Falconer, but each -had a very decided repugnance to the other, and the soldier knew and -felt him to be his secret enemy; and in their chance intercourse in -public places and at the U.S. club, whither he came under the -general's wing, the veiled hatred of Hew grew deeper as he felt -instinctively that he was every way, in tone, in bearing, and in -mind, the inferior of Falconer. - -He became more than usually boorish, for about this time he had a -curious run of ill-luck in his turf speculations; 'straight tips' had -turned out the reverse of straight; 'good things' on coming events -had turned out badly too; he had been jockied and wanted money -sorely, having lost in a few hours all that he had won from Acharn, -while the latter, instead of proposing to have his revenge, mentioned -incidentally 'his friend Falconer,' and declined all play; the next -time Acharn cut him _dead_, and he began to find all players avoiding -him. - -Though Mrs. Garth was invaluable as a chaperon, such a guardian is -not so necessary in the streets of 'the Queen of the North' as in -those of the sister metropolis; consequently Mary could go abroad -alone whenever she chose, while curiously enough she seemed to have -lost all taste for the use of the carriage now. - - - -END OF VOL. I. - - - -BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, GUILDFORD. - -_J. W. & Sons._ - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMERONIANS, VOLUME 1 (OF 3) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |