not be her method of revenge. There is another that pleases
her better, because she suspects that I dread it more.--You know what I
mean?"

"Political secrets?" Lady Rachel whispered--not in Flora's kind of
whisper, but quite into her brother's ear.

He nodded assent, and then he gravely informed her that his
acquaintance, Duncan Forbes, had sent a particular request to see him in
the morning. He should go, he said. It would not do to refuse waiting
on the President of the Court of Session, as he was known to be in
Edinburgh. But he wished he was a hundred miles off, if he was to hear
a Hanoverian lecture from a man so good natured, and so dignified by his
office, that he must always have his own way.

Lady Rachel went to bed very miserable this night. She wished that Lady
Carse and King George, and all the House of Brunswick had never existed;
or that Prince Charlie, or some of the exiled royal family, would come
over at once and take possession of the kingdom, that her brother and
his friends might no longer be compelled to live in a state of suspicion
and dread--every day planning to bring in a new king, and every day
obliged to appear satisfied with the one they had; their secret, or some
part of it, being all the while at the mercy of a violent woman who
hated them all.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE TURBULENT.

When Lord Carse issued from his own house the next morning to visit the
President, he had his daughter Janet by his side, and John behind him.
He took Janet in the hope that her presence, while it would be no
impediment to any properly legal business, would secure him from any
political conversation being introduced; and there was no need of any
apology for her visit, as the President usually asked why he had not the
pleasure of seeing her, if her father went alone. Duncan Forbes's good
nature to all young people was known to everybody; but he declared
himself an admirer of Janet above all others; and Janet never felt
herself of so much consequence as in the President's house.

John went as an escort to his young lady on her return.

Janet felt her father's arm twitch as they issued from their gates; and,
looking up to see why, she saw that his face was twitching too. She did
not know how near her mother was, nor that her father and John had their
ears on the stretch for a hail from the voice they dreaded above all
others in the world. But nothing was seen or heard of Lady Carse; and
when they tu