great interest he had
shown in watching the habits of the young hawks that had been captured
by a shepherd lad.

"Yes; I let them out last night. It was a pity to have them caged up."

"So long as it was yourself, it is all right," she said; and then she
was going away. But she paused and turned, and said to him, with a
smile, "And I think you should let yourself escape, too, Keith, for it
is you too that are caged up; and perhaps you feel it now more since you
have been to London. And if you are thinking of your friends in London,
why should you not go for another visit to the South before you settle
down to the long winter?"

For an instant he regarded her with some fear. Had she guessed his
secret? Had she been watching the outward signs of this constant torture
he had been suffering? Had she surmised that the otter-skins about which
he had asked her advice were not consigned to any one of the married
ladies whose acquaintance he had made in the South, and of whom he had
chatted freely enough in Castle Dare? Or was this merely a passing
suggestion thrown out by one who was always on the lookout to do a
kindness?

"Well, I would like to go, Janet," he said, but with no gladness in his
voice; "and it is not more than a week or two I should like to be away;
but I do not think the mother would like it; and it is enough money I
have spent this year already--"

"There is no concern about the money, Keith," said she, simply, "since
you have not touched what I gave you. And if you are set upon it, you
know auntie will agree to whatever you wish."

"But how can I explain to her? It is unreasonable to be going away."

How, indeed, could he explain? He was almost assuming that those gentle
eyes now fixed on him could read his heart, and that she would come to
aid him in his suffering without any further speech from him. And that
was precisely what Janet Macleod did--whether or not she had guessed the
cause of his desire to get away.

"If you were a schoolboy, Keith, you would be cleverer at making an
excuse for playing truant," she said, laughing. "And I could make one
for you now."

"You?"

"I will not call it an excuse, Keith," she said, "because I think you
would be doing a good work; and I will bear the expense of it, if you
please."

He looked more puzzled than ever.

"When we were at Salen yesterday I saw Major Stuart, and he has just
came back from Dunrobin. And he was saying very great things about the