mething like shortbread, made after a
recipe learned in Brabant! (I wondered the word did not choke her,
thinking of Lalor--but, perhaps, who knew? she would not after all be so
unwilling!) I had shed my blood for naught--not that I had really shed
any, but it felt like that. I had gone forth to conquer the world for
the sake of a faithless girl--though, again, I had not even done quite
that, seeing that Freddy Esquillant bade fair to beat me in all the
classes--except, perhaps, in the Mathematic, for which he had no taste.
But the principle was the same. I was deserted, and my whole aspect
became so dejected that my mother spoke to my father about my killing
myself in Edinburgh with study, which caused that good (and instructed)
man to exclaim, "Fiddlesticks!" Then she went to my grandmother, who
prescribed senna tea, which she brewed and stood by till I had drunk. I
resolved to wear my heart a little less on my sleeve, and always after
that assured my grandmother that I was feeling very well indeed. Also I
made shift to eat a little, even in public, contriving it so, however,
that the effort to appear brave and gay ought to have been evident even
to Miss Irma.

Every day Louis and she went to the Academy, and I went with them, one
of the uncles--generally Eben, the universally disposable--following to
the village with a loaded pistol in his tail-coat pocket.

For though there had been, as yet, no more than the ordinary winter
traffic by the well-recognized Free Traders of the Solway board, no man
could tell when the lugger from the Texel, or even the _Golden Hind_
herself might try again the fortune of our coasts. The latter vessel had
been growing famous, multiplying her captures and cruelties; indeed,
behaving little otherwise than if she carried the black flag with the
skull and cross-bones. And though a large part of his Majesty's navy had
been trying to catch her, hardly a monthly number of the _Scots
Magazine_ came to my father without some new exploit being deplored in
the monthly chronicle over near the end.

Nearer home, Messrs. Smart and Smart had offered by post to occupy
themselves with the future of the young baronet Sir Louis, on condition
that he should be given up to them to be sent to school, but in their
communication nothing was said about Miss Irma. So my grandfather sent
word that, subject to the law of the land, he would continue to protect
both the children whom Providence had placed in his ca