steal away his brains." This was the foe--the
stealthy-footed demon, that had at last come to overmaster the brave and
noble Angus Rothesay. As yet it ruled him not--he was no sot; but his
daughter saw enough to know that the fiend was nigh upon him--that this
night he was even in its grasp.

It is only the noblest kind of affection that can separate the sinner
from the sin, and even while condemning, pity. Fallen as he was, Olive
Rothesay looked on her father mournfully--intreatingly. She could not
speak.

He seemed annoyed, and slightly confounded. "Come, simpleton, why do you
stare at me?--there is nothing the matter. Go away to bed."

Olive did not move.

"Make haste--what are you waiting for? Nay, stay; 'tis a cold
night--just leave out the keys of the sideboard, will you, there's a
good little housekeeper," he said, coaxingly.

Olive turned away in disgust, but only for a moment. "In case you should
want anything, let me stay a little longer, papa; I am not tired, and I
have some work to do--suppose I go and fetch it."

She went into the inner room, slowly, quietly; and when safe out of
sight, burst into tears of such shame and terror as she had never before
known. Then she sat down to think. Her father thus; her mother feeble in
mind or body; no one in the wide world to trust to but herself; no one
to go to for comfort and counsel--none, save Heaven! She sank on her
knees and prayed. As she rose, the angel in the daughter's soul was
stronger than the demon in her father's.

Olive waited a little, and then walked softly into the other room. Some
brandy, left on the sideboard, had attracted Captain Rothesay's sight.
He had reached it stealthily, as if the act still conveyed to his dulled
brain a consciousness of degradation. Once he looked round suspiciously;
alas, the father dreaded his daughter's eye! Then stealthily standing
with his face to the fire, he began to drink the tempting poison.

It was taken out of his hand! So noiseless was Olive's step, so gentle
her movement, that he stood dumb, astonished, as though in the presence
of some apparition. And, in truth, the girl looked like a spirit; for
her face was very white, and her parted lips seemed as though they never
had uttered, and never could utter, one living sound.

Father and daughter stood for some moments thus gazing at each other;
and then Captain Rothesay threw himself into his chair, with a forced
laugh.

"What's the matter, little fo