. The
lady talked as if home had been merely an interlude, instead of the
crisis of his life.

"And what did you do? And whom did you see? Please tell me, for I am
dying for a gossip."

"I have been home in Scotland, you know. Looking after my affairs and
idling. I stood for Parliament and got beaten."

"Really! How exciting! Where is your home in Scotland, Mr. Haystoun?
You told me once, but I have forgotten. You know I have no end of
Scotch relatives."

"It's in rather a remote part, a place called Etterick, in Glenavelin."

"Glenavelin, Glenavelin," the lady repeated. "That's where the
Manorwaters live, isn't it?"

"My uncle," said Lewis.

"I had a letter from a friend who was staying there in the summer. I
wonder if you ever met her. A Miss Wishart. Alice Wishart?"

Lewis strove to keep any extraordinary interest out of his eyes. This
voice from another world bad broken rudely in upon his new composure.

"I knew her," he said, and his tone was of such studied carelessness
that Mrs. Logan looked up at him curiously.

"I hope you liked her, for her mother was a relation of my husband, and
when I have been home the small Alice has always been a great friend of
mine. I wonder if she has grown pretty. Gilbert and I used to bet
about it on different sides. I said she would be very beautiful some
day."

"She is very beautiful," said Lewis in a level voice, and George,
feeling the thin ice, came to his friend's rescue. He could at least
talk naturally of Miss Wishart.

"The Wisharts took the place, you know, Mrs. Logan, so we saw a lot of
them. The girl was delightful, good sportswoman and all that sort of
thing, and capital company. I wonder she never told us about you. She
knew we were coming out here, for I told her, and she was very
interested."

"Yes, it's odd, for I suppose she had read Mr. Haystoun's book, where
my husband comes in a good deal. I shall tell her about seeing you in
my next letter. And now tell me your plans."

Lewis's face had begun to burn in a most compromising way. Those last
days in Glenavelin had risen again before the eye of his mind and old
wounds were reopened. The thought that Alice was not yet wholly out of
his life, that the new world was not utterly severed from the old,
affected him with a miserable delight. Mrs. Logan became invested with
an extraordinary interest. He pulled himself together to answer her
question.

"Oh, our errand is much the same as last time. We w