.

"Yes, to-night. Remember to tell him so. To-morrow may be too late. Now,
go, go. He may come home at any moment; and if he saw you"--she caught
her breath with a sob--"if he saw you here, I think that he would kill
me."

"Kitty, Kitty! It cannot be so bad as this."

"Indeed, it is--and worse than you know," she said, bitterly. "Now let
me lead you back. Thank you for coming. And tell Brian--be sure you tell
Brian to come home to-night. It is his right, nobody can keep him out.
But not alone. Tell him not to come alone."

It was with these words ringing in his ears that Rupert was driven back
to Dunmuir.

Brian and his wife arrived about nine o'clock in the evening, as they
had said in the letter which Mr. Colquhoun had received. Vivian, wrought
up by this time to a high pitch of excitement, did not wait five minutes
before pouring the whole of his story into Brian's ear. Brian's eyes
flashed, his face looked stern as he listened to Kitty's message.

"The hound!" he said. "The cur! I expected almost as much. I know now
what I never dreamt of before. He is a cowardly villain, and I will
expose him this very night."

"Remember poor Kitty," said Elizabeth.

"I will spare her as much as possible, but I will not spare him. Do you
know, Vivian, that he tried to murder Dino Vasari? There is not a
blacker villain on the face of the earth. And to think that all this
time my mother has been at his mercy!"

"His mother!" ejaculated Mr. Colquhoun in Percival's ear, with a chuckle
of extreme satisfaction, "I'm glad he's come back to that nomenclature.
Blood's thicker than water; and I'll stand to it, as I always have done,
that this Brian's the right one after all."

"It's the only one there is, now," said Percival, "Vasari is dead."

"Poor laddie! Well, he was just too good for this wicked world," said
the lawyer, with great cheerfulness, "and it would be a pity to grudge
him to another. And what are you after now, Brian?"

"I'm going up to Netherglen."

"Without your dinner?"

"What do I care for dinner when my mother's life may be in danger?" said
Brian.

"Tut, tut! Why should it be in danger to-night of all nights in the
year?" said Mr. Colquhoun, testily.

"Why? Can you ask? Have you not told me yourself that my mother made a
will before her illness, leaving all that she possessed to Hugo? Depend
upon it, he is anxious to get Netherglen. When he hears that I have come
back he will be afraid. He knows that