psy song which had been handed
down from woodland mother to woodland child for hundreds of years; a
song which sent Nancy's lawless blood to her cheeks and set her heart
beating with an inherited remembrance of raids and sea-fights, and
lawless loves; which made her eyes misty with tears and unawakened
passion; the song which I had learned to dread, Marian's song:

"Love that is Life,
Love that is Death,
Love that is mine"----

And as she finished, carried off her feet by her own feelings, she
looked toward us for a moment; but it was neither upon me nor Danvers
Carmichael that the look fell; for, as one who knows she will be
understood, her glance turned to his Grace of Borthwicke, whose eyes
told a tale so openly that he who ran might read. I was more disturbed
by this occurrence than I cared to admit, and after the supper, when
Nancy, attended still by Danvers Carmichael, came back to us, I was
glad to hear her say that she wished to go home. His Grace of
Borthwicke being still near us, it fell upon me to present Danvers
Carmichael to him, an introduction which Dandy acknowledged by a
perfunctory bow and scant courtesy, and the duke by turning his eyes
for one second in Dandy's direction and repeating his name as
"McMichael" in the exasperating manner of one who neither knows nor
cares who the person is who has been presented to him; and although at
the time of the murder the lawyers tried to have it that the
acquaintance between these two men was of London breeding, I can vouch
for it, from my own knowledge and the testimony of Danvers Carmichael
to me on our way home, that this was the first time he and the duke
ever set eyes on each other.

In just the manner in which I have set it forth, in the compass of a
few days, the three most important factors in Nancy's life came to the
working out of it, Robert Burns, though but by book; Danvers
Carmichael, a gentleman; and that splendid devil, John Montrose, Duke
of Borthwicke, Ardvilarchan and Drumblaine in the Muirs.

CHAPTER XI

DANVERS CARMICHAEL MAKES A PROPOSAL

Whether the conduct of the Duke of Borthwicke brought a climax to the
affairs between Danvers and Nancy I can not state for a surety, but the
next morning as I sat alone on the south porch the boy came upon me
with some suddenness.

"Lord Stair," he said, "it is with my father's knowledge and
pleasurable consent that I come to ask your permission to have Nancy
for my wife, if