w till the day breaks: we maun just do our
duty, and mine, by every drop of my blood, is to the king and the
king's side. But mind ye, Lady Jean, it will not be always through the
moss-hags--chasing shepherds, ploughmen and sic-like; by and by it
will be on the battle-field, when this great quarrel is settled in
Scotland. May the day not be far off, and may the richt side win."

As Claverhouse spoke he leaned back in the corner of the seat and
looked into the far distance, while his face lost its changing
expressions of cynicism, severity, gracious courtesy and keen
scrutiny, and showed a nobility which Jean had never seen before. She
noticed how it invested his somewhat effeminate beauty with manliness
and dignity.

"That is true"--and Jean's voice grew gentler--"nane kens that better
than myself, for nane has been more tossed in mind than I have been.
Ilka man, and also woman, must walk the road as they see it before
them, and do their part till the end comes; but the roads cross
terribly on the muirs in the West Country. If I was uncivil a minute
syne I crave your pardon, for that was not my mind. But if rumor be
true it matters not to you what any man says, far less my Lady
Cochrane's daughter, for ye were made to gang yir ain gait."

"Ye are wrong there, Lady Jean, far wrong," Claverhouse suddenly
turned round and looked at her with a new countenance. "I will not
deny that I am made to be careless about the strife of tongues, and to
give little heed whether the world condemns or approves if I do my
devoir rightly to my lord the king. But it would touch me to the heart
what you thought of me. They say that a woman knows if a man loves
her, even though his love be sudden and unlikely, and if that be so,
then surely you have seen, as we walked in this pleasaunce those fair
evenings, that I have loved you from the moment I saw you in the hall
that day. Confess it, Jean, if that be not so. I, with what I heard of
Pollock, was bound in honor to be silent."

"Was Pollock the only bond of honor?" and Jean blazed on him with
sudden fury. "Is there no other tie that should keep you from speaking
of love to me and offering me insult in my father's house? Is this the
chivalry of a Royalist, and am I, Jean Cochrane, to be treated like a
light lady of the Court, or some poor lass of the countryside ye can
play with at your leisure? Pleased by your notice and then flung
aside like a flower ye wore till it withered."

"Befor