r
hungered for a trace of Anne. Her heart whispered, Risk it! And Blanche
risked it on the spot.

"Sir Patrick set me on coming to you," she said.

The opening hand of Mr. Bishopriggs--ready to deliver the letter, and
receive the reward--closed again instantly as she spoke those words.

"Sir Paitrick?" he repeated "Ow! ow! ye've een tauld Sir Paitrick aboot
it, have ye? There's a chiel wi' a lang head on his shouthers, if ever
there was ane yet! What might Sir Paitrick ha' said?"

Blanche noticed a change in his tone. Blanche was rigidly careful (when
it was too late) to answer him in guarded terms.

"Sir Patrick thought you might have found the letter," she said, "and
might not have remembered about it again until after you had left the
inn."

Bishopriggs looked back into his own personal experience of his old
master--and drew the correct conclusion that Sir Patrick's view of
his connection with the disappearance of the letter was not the purely
unsuspicious view reported by Blanche. "The dour auld deevil," he
thought to himself, "knows me better than _that!_"

"Well?" asked Blanche, impatiently. "Is Sir Patrick right?"

"Richt?" rejoined Bishopriggs, briskly. "He's as far awa' from the truth
as John o' Groat's House is from Jericho."

"You know nothing of the letter?"

"Deil a bit I know o' the letter. The first I ha' heard o' it is what I
hear noo."

Blanche's heart sank within her. Had she defeated her own object, and
cut the ground from under Sir Patrick's feet, for the second time?
Surely not! There was unquestionably a chance, on this occasion, that
the man might be prevailed upon to place the trust in her uncle which
he was too cautious to confide to a stranger like herself. The one wise
thing to do now was to pave the way for the exertion of Sir Patrick's
superior influence, and Sir Patrick's superior skill. She resumed the
conversation with that object in view.

"I am sorry to hear that Sir Patrick has guessed wrong," she resumed.
"My friend was anxious to recover the letter when I last saw her; and I
hoped to hear news of it from you. However, right or wrong, Sir Patrick
has some reasons for wishing to see you--and I take the opportunity of
telling you so. He has left a letter to wait for you at the Craig Fernie
inn."

"I'm thinking the letter will ha' lang eneugh to wait, if it waits till
I gae back for it to the hottle," remarked Bishopriggs.

"In that case," said Blanche, promptly, "you h