ty, with Sir Patrick Sullivan, gathered in a group by the
large window of the music-room.

Jane Gordon held me in talk a minute as I passed her, and for this
reason his grace offered his arm to Nancy, and as the two of them
passed together a hush fell on the people at the sight of them, and I
could see by significant glances and the jogging of elbows that
Edinburgh folks would take the news of a betrothal between them with
small surprise. Gordon told me later that some one suggested this in a
veiled fashion to his Grace of Borthwicke, who might easily have turned
the matter aside or noted it not at all, but that he laughed openly,
saying:

"If it had lain with me, my engagement to Mistress Stair would have
been announced the evening I saw her first. 'Tis the lady herself who
refuses me," an attitude which, from one of his rank, was surely
gentlemanly in the extreme.

As soon as I was disengaged from the Gordons I made my way toward the
Carmichael family with joy in my heart to see my lad once more. He
greeted me with affection, folding my hand in his as a loving son might
do, rallying me on my good looks, patting me on the shoulder, and
showing by every sign an honest fondness for me which touched me
deeply. I could have wished that he looked better himself. He had lost
no flesh; he carried himself with a jauntiness and elasticity which
comes from strength, but the expression of his mouth was changed and
his eyes had a restless, uninterested expression which showed him
unsettled and unhappy.

Isabel looked ill at ease. She had lost her color, had taken on much
flesh, and it seemed, as I observed her more, that it was from the
father rather than the son that she obtained what comfort she had, for
it was to Sandy she turned in all of the talk, and it was his arm upon
which she leaned. Her manner to me was constrained, but not lacking in
cordiality, and when I proposed that they should join our party she
assented willingly enough. Because of this suggestion it fell that we
met Nancy walking toward us on the duke's arm, and at the sudden sight
of her Danvers Carmichael turned white and set his jaw as one who
endures a physical hurt in silence.

And the rest of the evening was of a piece with life, wherein none can
tell what latent qualities of our neighbor may be brought suddenly to
the fore, upsetting every plan which we have made for years.

Whether Danvers lost every thought of behavior through his present
unhapp