ght have
noticed a curious commentary on Mr. Cromarty's professed lack of
interest in womankind. His single eye lit up for an instant and he
moved sharply in his chair, and then as suddenly repressed all sign of
interest.

A minute or two later the visitor jumped up.

"Well," said he, "I guess you're pretty busy and I've been talking too
long as it is. Let me have that statement as quick as you like. Good
morning!"

He strode to the door, shut it behind him, and then when he was on the
landing, his movements became suddenly more leisurely. Instead of
striding downstairs he stood looking curiously in turn at each closed
door. It was an old fashioned house and rather a rabbit warren of an
office, and it would seem as though for some reason he wished to leave
no door unwatched. In a moment he heard the lawyer's bell ring and very
slowly he moved down a step or two while a clerk answered the call and
withdrew. And then he took a cigar from his case, bit off the end, and
felt for matches; all this being very deliberately done, and his eye
following the clerk. Thus when a girl emerged from the room along a
passage, she met, apparently quite accidentally, Mr. Cromarty of
Stanesland.

At the first glance it was quite evident that the meeting gave more
pleasure to the gentleman than to the lady. Indeed, the girl seemed too
disconcerted to hide the fact.

"Good morning, Miss Farmond," said he with what seemed intended for an
air of surprise; as though he had no idea she had been within a mile of
him. "You coming to see Simon on business too?" And then taking the cue
from her constrained manner, he added hurriedly, and with a note of
dejection he could not quite hide, "Well, good-bye."

The girl's expression suddenly changed, and with that change the laird
of Stanesland's curious movements became very explicable, for her face
was singularly charming when she smiled. It was a rather pale but fresh
and clear-skinned face, wide at the forehead and narrowing to a firm
little chin, with long-lashed expressive eyes, and a serious expression
in repose. Her smile was candid, a little coy and irresistibly engaging,
and her voice was very pleasant, rather low, and most engaging too. She
was of middle height and dressed in mourning. Her age seemed rather
under than over twenty.

"Oh," she said, with a touch of hesitation at first, "I didn't mean----"
She broke off, glanced at the clerk, who being a discreet young man was
now in the