ed and eager as if it were a fortune at stake,
instead of the bit of Scotch ribbon he had affected to dislike. And it
did almost seem to him as if he were playing for Bessie herself; playing
to keep her from Grey, the very man to whom he had said he would rather
give her than to any one else in the world, if she were not for him. The
first game was Grey's, the second Neil's; then came the rubber, and
Bessie dealt.

"Oh, Bessie," Neil said, in a despairing voice, when he found that he
did not hold a single trump, while Jack gave out the second time round,
and Grey turned up five points, making six in all.

Suddenly the tide turned and Neil's was the winning side until they
stood six and four, and then Grey roused himself and played as he had
never done before, carefully watching the cards as they fell, knowing
exactly what had been played, and calculating pretty accurately where
the others were, and finally coming off victorious.

"The ribbon is mine, and I claim my own!" Grey said, with a ring in his
voice and a warmth in his manner which brought the hot blood to Bessie's
cheeks, as she took the knot from her throat and presented it to him,
blushing still more when he raised it to his lips and then pinned it
upon his sleeve.

"What a cad he is! I'd like to knock him down, if he were any one but
Grey," Neil thought, and pushing back his chair from the table he said
he had had enough of cards for one night. Whist was a stupid game
anyway, and he never had any luck.

Neil was very quiet the remainder of the evening, though he could not
altogether resist Grey, who was at his best, and kept them all in a roar
of laughter at his jokes and the stories he told of the genuine Yankees
whom he had seen in New England, and the Johnny Bulls he had encountered
in England, and whose peculiarities of voice and expression he imitated
perfectly. Then he recited poetry, comic and tragic and descriptive; and
was so entertaining and brilliant, and so very courteous and gentlemanly
in all he did and said, that Bessie was enraptured and showed it in her
speaking face, which Neil knew always told the truth, and when at last
he retired to his room he could not sleep, but lay awake, torn with
jealousy and love and doubt as to what he ought to do.

The next morning both Grey and Jack departed by different trains, for
the latter was going to the Scottish house where Lady Jane and Blanche
were staying, and then to Trevellian Castle to see his