He gave it him back without a word. Ogilvie only
smiled; he was proud of the surprise he had planned.

And now the fancies and recollections that came rushing into Macleod's
head were of a sufficiently chaotic and bewildering character. He tried
to separate that grave, and gentle, and sensitive girl he had met at
Prince's Gate from this gay madcap, and he could not at all succeed. His
heart laughed with the laughter of this wild creature; he enjoyed the
discomfiture and despair of the old lawyer as she stood before him
twirling her garden hat by a solitary ribbon; and when the small, white
fingers raised the canary to be kissed by the pouting lips, the action
was more graceful than anything he had ever seen in the world. But where
was the silent and serious girl who had listened with such rapt
attention to his tales of passion and revenge, who seemed to have some
mysterious longing for those gloomy shores he came from, who had sung
with such exquisite pathos "A wee bird cam' to our ha' door?" Her cheek
had turned white when she heard of the fate of the son of Maclean:
surely that sensitive and vivid imagination could not belong to this
audacious girl, with her laughing, and teasings, and demure coquetry?

Society had not been talking about the art of Mrs. Ross's _protegee_ for
nothing; and that art soon made short work of Keith Macleod's doubts.
The fair stranger he had met at Prince's Gate vanished into mist. Here
was the real woman; and all the trumpery business of the theatre, that
he would otherwise have regarded with indifference or contempt, became a
real and living thing, insomuch that he followed the fortunes of this
spoiled child with a breathless interest and a beating heart. The spell
was on him. Oh, why should she be so proud to this poor lover, who stood
so meekly before her? "Coquette, coquette" (Macleod could have cried to
her), "the days are not always full of sunshine; life is not all youth,
and beauty, and high spirits; you may come to repent of your pride and
your cruelty." He had no jealousy against the poor youth who took his
leave; he pitied him, but it was for her sake; he seemed to know that
evil days were coming, when she would long for the solace of an honest
man's love. And when the trouble came--as it speedily did--and when she
stood bravely up at first to meet her fate, and when she broke down for
a time, and buried her face in her hands, and cried with bitter sobs,
the tears were running do