low his window, as he drew the curtains, and by
the more diffused light for the first time surveyed his room critically.
It was a larger apartment than that usually set aside for bachelors;
the heavy four-poster had a conjugal reserve about it, and a tall cheval
glass and certain minor details of the furniture suggested that it had
been used for a married couple. He knew that the guest-rooms in country
houses, as in hotels, carried no suggestion or flavor of the last
tenant, and therefore lacked color and originality, and he was
consequently surprised to find himself impressed with some distinctly
novel atmosphere. He was puzzling himself to discover what it might
be, when he again became aware of cautious footsteps apparently halting
outside his door. This time he was prepared. With a half smile he
stepped softly to the door and opened it suddenly. To his intense
surprise he was face to face with a man.

But his discomfiture was as nothing compared to that of the
stranger--whom he at once recognized as one of his fellow-guests--the
youthful Laird of Whistlecrankie. The young fellow's healthy color at
once paled, then flushed a deep crimson, and a forced smile stiffened
his mouth.

"I--beg your par-r-rdon," he said with a nervous brusqueness that
brought out his accent. "I couldna find ma room. It'll be changed, and
I--"

"Perhaps I have got it," interrupted the consul smilingly. "I've only
just come, and they've put me in here."

"Nae! Nae!" said the young man hurriedly, "it's no' thiss. That is, it's
no' mine noo."

"Won't you come in?" suggested the consul politely, holding open the
door.

The young man entered the room with the quick strides but the mechanical
purposelessness of embarrassment. Then he stiffened and stood erect. Yet
in spite of all this he was strikingly picturesque and unconventional in
his Highland dress, worn with the freedom of long custom and a
certain lithe, barbaric grace. As the consul continued to gaze at him
encouragingly, the quick resentful pride of a shy man suddenly mantled
his high cheekbones, and with an abrupt "I'll not deesturb ye longer,"
he strode out of the room.

The consul watched the easy swing of his figure down the passage, and
then closed the door. "Delightful creature," he said musingly, "and not
so very unlike an Apache chief either! But what was he doing outside
my door? And was it HE who left that rose--not as a delicate Highland
attention to an utter stranger