that had been his real thought. But he only said, "For a year
or two, brother--it is better so--she runs the hills like a wild thing.
Why, officers of his Majesty have boasted of having met and talked to
her dressed only in yellow sandals and a blue bathing dress!"

"And, pray, whose fault was that?" her father demanded.

"Not mine," said Julian calmly, "she ran to save the Glenanmays lads
from the press-gang; and if the sandals were mine, she ran better with
them than without."

"So have I heard all that," said my Lord. "But if only she were a
daughter of mine, I should not send her to London to be made as
commonplace and artificial as everything else about the Hanoverian
court."

"That, my Lord," said Julian, "is the opinion of a partial grandfather.
Pardon me for my freedom, but if that boy Louis had been your son, you
would have packed him off to dree his weird in the army. And yet he is a
wise enough lad, and has come to no great harm--nay, I know him to be
both brave and chivalrous--"

"He is a De Raincy," said his grandfather, rather haughtily.

"And as such should have a career," Julian continued without heeding the
expression on my Lord's face.

"I have heard of a man who had the highest prize of the most
distinguished of careers right in his grasp, yet one fine day dropped
everything to go out in an unstarched linen shirt with another man at
six o'clock in the morning!"

"When Louis de Raincy has my reasons for doing the like," said Julian,
looking directly at the Earl, "you can welcome him home and let him
watch the trees grow in the park. He will have given his proofs and
learned the meaning of life."

"I beg your pardon!" said Lord Raincy, "I recognize that what you say is
true. I am not sure, however, whether I can afford to let Louis go. But
perhaps you came back from France to suggest as much to me."

Julian Wemyss laughed for the first time, a clear light-running laugh
very pleasant to hear.

"I own I had it in my mind," he said, "all this night-hawking and saving
of entrapped damsels is apt to make a boy romantic. Well, no harm for a
while, I say. But if you follow my thought and excuse it--'tis not
enough to set up house upon. I have no doubt that your grandson thinks
himself over head and ears in love with my niece. What Patsy thinks I do
not know--probably that young men were created for that purpose and that
one is very like another."

"At his age I should certainly have been most d