pier to remember
that ye kissed me, than to think you kept the vows you swore before
God, ye may kiss me if ye choose!"

The choice was made in silence, and he dropped her hands, picked up the
valise which had fallen by his feet, and turned to go. At sight of this
resolution Nancy burst into tears.

"Oh," she cried, "God bless you! God bless you, dear! And give you
peace!" as, without touching even her hand, Danvers Carmichael fared
forth alone, along the stage road which lay lonesome and frozen in the
shadow of the night.

CHAPTER XXIII

A FALSE RUMOR CAUSES TROUBLE

While these events were going forward at Allan-lough I sat in an
ignorant complacency at Stair, pleased with the advices of Janet's
convalescence, and with no knowledge whatever of Danvers Carmichael's
whereabouts save that he was from Arran Towers. My lack of knowledge
concerning his movements occurred by reason of a new trouble which
broke out at this time between his father and Hugh Pitcairn concerning
a watercourse which crossed the adjoining lands of both, somewhere back
in the country. The water was of no use to Sandy, and equally valueless
to Hugh; but the fact that one of them wanted it heightened its value
to the other, and talk went back and forth, with Sandy deaving my ears
concerning his rights on Monday, and Hugh going over the same ground,
looking the other way, on Tuesday, until I was driven from Stair and
avoided both, spending my time at the clubs, the coffee-houses, or with
Creech and his queer old books.

Coming down the steps of his shop on the morning of the twelfth of
February--I recall the date because it was the beginning of all the
troublous times at Stair--I encountered James Gordon, looking both
worried and perplexed.

"John," said he, "you are the very man to help me from an embarrassing
position. My wife and daughter have been taken with a fever; our
town-house is small, and I have invited Borthwicke to stay with us
during the meeting of the Lighthouse Commission----"

"Let me have him at Stair," I cried. "Nancy is from home, I am leading
a bachelor life, and you will be showing a kindness to send me such
good company as John Montrose."

In this entirely unplanned manner the duke became my visitor, and I
found him a merry companion, easy, accessible, agreeable; praising my
wines, naming my house the most attractive place in Scotland, and my
daughter the most wonderful woman in the world; and I wandered abroa