studio is delightful, and you have
beautiful things all around you. As soon as I open the door, I come out
into the world again, with constant vexations and apprehensions all
around. Why, I don't know but that at any minute Sir Keith Macleod may
not come walking up to the gate!"

"And why should that possibility keep you in terror?" said her father,
calmly.

"Well, not in terror," said she, looking down, "but--but anxiety, at
least; and a very great deal of anxiety. Because I know he will want
explanations, and promises, and I don't know what--just at the time I am
most worried and unsettled about everything I mean to do."

Her father regarded her for a second or two.

"Well?" said he.

"Isn't that enough?" she said, with some indignation.

"Oh," said he, coldly, "you have merely come to me to pour out your tale
of wrongs. You don't want me to interfere, I suppose. Am I to condole
with you?"

"I don't know why you should speak to me like that, at all events," said
she.

"Well, I will tell you," he responded, in the same cool, matter of fact
way. "When you told me you meant to give up the theatre and marry Sir
Keith Macleod, my answer was that you were likely to make a mistake. I
thought you were a fool to throw away your position as an actress; but I
did not urge the point. I merely left the matter in your own hands.
Well, you went your own way. For a time your head was filled with
romance--Highland chieftains, and gillies, and red-deer, and baronial
halls, and all that stuff; and no doubt you persuaded that young man
that you believed in the whole thing fervently, and there was no end to
the names you called theatres and everybody connected with them. Not
only that, but you must needs drag me up to the Highlands to pay a visit
to a number of strangers with whom both you and I lived on terms of
apparent hospitality and goodwill, but in reality on terms of very great
restraint. Very well. You begin to discover that your romance was a
little bit removed from the actual state of affairs--at least, you say
so--"

"I say so!" she exclaimed.

"Hear me out," the father said, patiently. "I don't want to offend you,
Gerty, but I wish to speak plainly. You have an amazing faculty for
making yourself believe anything that suits you. I have not the least
doubt but that you have persuaded yourself that the change in your
manner toward Keith Macleod was owing to your discovering that their way
of life was different fro