sly, stamping his foot.

Patsy swept her skirts aside and motioned with her hand.

"Sit down, little boy!" she said, "you are not built to sing on that
key. I can. Your grandfather could, or Uncle Julian--"

"He has killed a man in a duel--another man, I mean--I heard them
telling about it to-day in the stables...."

Patsy grew pale.

"Not the Prince!... He will be outlawed. Perhaps they will send him to
prison or cut off his head."

"No, no," Louis broke in; "not the Prince, though that is a pity too. I
should liked have a whack at him--"

"Well, never mind--Stair Garland had one, and they say that he will
hardly ever walk straight again. But whom has Uncle Ju killed? I knew if
he heard of it he would kill somebody. He did once before."

"Lord Wargrove. They fought on the beach at Calais. He came straight
over to London to arrange about your going to his Princess, whoever she
may be, and he arrived here at the castle while your father and my
grandfather were sitting together after dinner spinning stories. He was
for your going to London directly. He spoke to grandfather about me,
too. Mother says he is a bloodthirsty wretch and no right Christian. But
grandfather must have thought a lot of him or he would never have
listened to a word about my going for a soldier. Now he has written to
the Duke to get me a company, and there will be a lot of money to pay,
also, which grandad won't like. I am to go to the _depot_ immediately to
learn the drill and so on. It is a blessing I can ride."

"I don't believe you will be sent to the war at all," said Patsy, "at
least not for a while. So don't get cock-a-hoop. You will have a lot to
learn, and you can persuade your grandfather, if you really want to see
me, to open up his house in London, and then you can come and see me as
often as you like."

"What, with a glorified Princess looking after you? I do not see myself,
somehow!"

"Oh, you will learn," Patsy retorted carelessly. "Of course we have all
got to do that. I don't want very much to leave all this. How should I?
It is my country and my life, but I suppose they know best, and at any
rate if they keep me too long, I can always run away. You could not do
that, of course, when you are a soldier, for that would be desertion,
and they would shoot you as they did Admiral Byng."

The bad business of their exodus from the Glens began to wear a brighter
aspect for Louis Raincy. London with Patsy partook of the unknown