aid that the affection had
something conscience-stricken about it. There were times when Nelly's
eyes asked pardon of the Dowager for some offence committed against her,
and this usually happened when the Dowager was making much of her, as of
a daughter-in-law who would be dearly welcome when the time came.
Something of the love Lady Drummond had borne for her husband had passed
on to his niece. She was immensely proud, in her secret heart, of the
deeds of the Drummonds. Despite her hectoring ways, she looked up to and
admired the General, although he had been too simple to discern the fact
and profit by it. Robin's divergence from his father's ways was,
secretly, an acute disappointment to her. When she caressed Nelly with a
warmth which none of her friends would have credited her with
possessing, there was compunction with the tenderness. The child ought
to have had the delight of marrying a soldier, a hero whom she could
adore, as she herself had adored her Gerald. When she pressed the golden
head to her angular bosom she was asking the girl's pardon for her son's
shortcomings.

"I shall have heroic grandchildren," she said to herself. "Although
Robin is a throwback to the Quaker, the grandsons of Gerald and Denis
Drummond must be fighting men."

She pondered long over those grandchildren, and derived a grim pleasure
from the thought of them. She even spoke of them to the General, when
Nelly was out of hearing.

"It was a disappointment to both of us that Robin is a man of peace,"
she said, acknowledging the fact for the first time. "Not but that he is
a good boy--a very good boy. The fighting strain will recur in the next
generation. We shall have soldiers among our grandchildren."

"Grandchildren!" growled the General, turning very crimson in the face.
"I call it indelicate to discuss such subjects. As for Nelly's marrying,
why, she's only a child. I should feel very little obliged to the man
who would want to take her from me at her age."

"Nelly is nineteen," the Dowager reminded him, "and the marriage can't
be delayed much longer. It ought to be a source of satisfaction to us
that the young people are so pleased with the arrangement. I know that
Robin has never thought of anyone but his cousin, and I am sure it is
just the same with the dear child."

The General grew red again--not this time with anger, but rather as
though the Dowager's words had stirred some sense of guilt in his
breast. He muttered som