osure about his whole person. He sat down at
the lower end of the table, opposite to Dorothy, and crossed himself, as
if preparing for his morning's meal. As he did not help himself to any
food, Catharine offered him a platter containing some of the cakes which
had met with such general approbation. At first he rejected her offered
kindness rather sullenly; but on her repeating the offer with a smile of
goodwill, he took a cake in his hand, broke it, and was about to eat a
morsel, when the effort to swallow seemed almost too much for him; and
though he succeeded, he did not repeat it.

"You have a bad appetite for St. Valentine's morning, Conachar," said
his good humoured master; "and yet I think you must have slept soundly
the night before, since I conclude you were not disturbed by the noise
of the scuffle. Why, I thought a lively glune amie would have been at
his master's side, dirk in hand, at the first sound of danger which
arose within a mile of us."

"I heard but an indistinct noise," said the youth, his face glowing
suddenly like a heated coal, "which I took for the shout of some merry
revellers; and you are wont to bid me never open door or window, or
alarm the house, on the score of such folly."

"Well--well," said Simon; "I thought a Highlander would have known
better the difference betwixt the clash of swords and the twanging on
harps, the wild war cry and the merry hunt's up. But let it pass, boy; I
am glad thou art losing thy quarrelsome fashions. Eat thy breakfast, any
way, as I have that to employ thee which requires haste."

"I have breakfasted already, and am in haste myself. I am for the hills.
Have you any message to my father?"

"None," replied the glover, in some surprise; "but art thou beside
thyself, boy? or what a vengeance takes thee from the city, like the
wing of the whirlwind?"

"My warning has been sudden," said Conachar, speaking with difficulty;
but whether arising from the hesitation incidental to the use of a
foreign language, or whether from some other cause, could not easily
be distinguished. "There is to be a meeting--a great hunting--" Here he
stopped.

"And when are you to return from this blessed hunting?" said the master;
"that is, if I may make so bold as to ask."

"I cannot exactly answer," replied the apprentice. "Perhaps never,
if such be my father's pleasure," continued Conachar, with assumed
indifference.

"I thought," said Simon Glover, rather seriously, "that a