Highland sergeant lying on a
stretcher, waiting until some place was found for him, with the
sweat standing in great beads on his forehead. He muttered some
kind of a prayer in Gaelic as I passed, and at the sound of the
once familiar tongue I stopped, and, bending over him, wiped away
the perspiration, and spake to him in his own language. He stared
at me in the utmost astonishment, and then swore a great oath, and
the tears filled his eyes.

I at last found a soldier who was not on duty, and by him sent a
message to Captain Nairn that a lady desired speech with him when
he was at liberty.

He returned with word that the Captain fixed eleven o'clock, and
at that hour I awaited in the parlour. As I waited I wondered that
I had ever made any question of meeting him; I could even see that
his choice of life had its defence, from a man's point of view. A
soldier is first of all a soldier, and waiting the heaviest of his
duties; though he is ready to suffer incredibly for his cause when
it is active, it is the women who keep the personal attachments
alive through the weary days when everything but hope is dead.

I spake at once on his entrance.

"Archie, I am your sister Margaret."

"My dearest Peggy!" was all he said, but he caught me in his strong
arms and nearly crushed the breath out of me. He petted and fondled
me, calling me by every dear name of childhood, until my heart was
nigh to bursting with this treasure of love lavished upon me when
I least expected it.

I was brought back to the present when he questioned me on the
reason of my being in Canada, and though it cost me a bitter struggle
with my pride, I told him the whole story of my folly. I could not
spare myself when he took me so on trust.

"And you say that Maxwell was married all this time?" he asked,
sternly.

"Yes, but--"

"There are no 'buts'!" he interrupted, fiercely. "I will kill him
on sight!"

"Archie, my brother, think what you say! I do not know that he
deceived me, and I do know I deceived myself.

"I can't help that! If he had not been there, you never would have
made the mistake. The only pity is I was not on the ground at the
time."

"But, Archie, think of me. Think what an open scandal will mean.
No one but you and me, and one other," I added--remembering le pere
Jean--"knows anything of this now."

"And what do we care about other people, Peggy? We Nairns are not
used to asking leave for our actions; and so long as you