to."

"It is--it is!" And his heart opening itself more and more, he told her
his cause of annoyance. A most important mercantile venture would be
lost to him for want of what he called "a few paltry hundreds," to be
forthcoming on the morrow.

"If it had been a fortnight--just till my next ship is due; or even one
week, to give me time to make some arrangement! But where is the use of
complaining! It is too late."

"Not quite," said Alison Gwynne, looking up after a few moments of
deep thought; and, with a clearness which would have gained for her
the repute of "a thorough woman of business," she questioned Captain
Rothesay, until she drew from him a possible way of obviating his
difficulty.

"If, as you say, I were in London now, where my banker or some business
friend would take up a bill for me; but that is impossible!"

"Nay--why say that you have friends only in London?" replied Alison,
with a gentle smile. "That is rather too unjust, Angus Rothesay. Our
Highland clanship is not so clean forgotten, I hope. Come, old friend,
it will be hard if I cannot do something for you. And Harold, who loves
Flora Rothesay almost as much as he loves me, would gladly aid her
kinsman."

"How--how! Nay, but I will never consent," cried Angus, with a
resoluteness through which his first eager sense of relief was clearly
discernible. Truly, there was coming upon him, with this mania of
speculation, the same desperation which causes the gambler to clutch
money from the starving hands of those who even yet are passionately
dear.

"You _shall_ consent, friend," answered Mrs. Gwynne, composedly. "Why
should you not? It is a mere form--an obligation of a week, at most. You
will accept that for the sake of Alison Balfour."

He clasped her hand with as much emotion as was in his nature to show.

She continued--"Well, we will talk of this again when Harold comes in
to dinner. But, positively, I see him returning. There he is, dashing up
the hill. I hope nothing is the matter."

Yet she did not quit the room to meet him, but sat apparently quiet,
though her hands were slightly trembling, until her son came in. In
answer to her question, he said--

"No, no; nothing amiss. Only Mr. Fludyer would have me go to the Hall to
see his new horses; and there I found"----

"Sara!" interrupted the mother. "Well, perhaps she thought it would be
a pleasant change from the dulness of Waterton during your absence; so
never mind."

He did