of course) some portion of her nephew's
increasing expenses, than going into the pocket of a worthless landlord
or hydropathic company.

Andrew was glancing through an evening paper, and his aunt
conscientiously studying that morning's _Scotsman_. Suddenly she
exclaimed:

"The Cromarty Highlanders have come to Glasgow!"

Andrew stared at her.

"Not the second battalion?"

"Yes, Frank's regiment."

"But they weren't to leave India for three years yet."

Mrs. Andrew looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, I saw they'd been ordered home some time ago."

"You didn't mention it to me," said Andrew.

She looked a little surprised, for she knew that Frank's was not a name
mentioned in that house.

"I didn't think you'd be interested."

"I am not in the least," replied her husband.

His eye reproved her coldly. She exchanged with his aunt one of those
sympathetic glances that pass between indulgent but comprehending women.
"He is a noble creature, but at moments a little inconsistent," they
mutually confided. And then she wrote the names of Lord and Lady
Kilconquar on their card.

And that is how Jean might have been spending her evenings too, had she
had proper principles.

CHAPTER V

The gentlemen entered the drawing-room, bringing a faint aroma of
Andrew's excellent cigars. The ladies' conversation died away to the
whispered ends of one or two stories too interesting to be left
unfinished, and then with a deeper note and on manlier topics the flood
of talk poured on again.

It had been a most successful dinner--soup excellent, fish first-rate,
everything good. Of course the wines were unexceptionable, while the
company recognized itself as a homogeneous specimen of all that was best
in the city--with the Ramornies of Pettigrew thrown in. Here they were
now, the whole twenty-two of them from old Lord Kilconquar, most eminent
of judges, down to that rising young Hector Donaldson, bearing implicit
testimony to the status of Andrew Walkingshaw. He stood there beside
Lady Kilconquar's chair gravely discoursing on a well-chosen topic of
local interest and bending solemnly at intervals to hear her comments.
You could see at once from the attitude of all who addressed him that he
was recognized as far from the least distinguished member of the
company. He had touched the very apex of his career.

"Hush, Andrew," murmured his wife. "Mrs. Rivington is going to sing."

Hector opened the piano, and Mrs. Rivingt