Lindores. The earl himself had a con- he was far more determined after she had sciousness of the strange discovery of put his pride to the humiliation of a rehim which his wife had made; and though fusal, and roused all the savage in him. he was defiant and determined to subdue From the night of the ball until the moall opposition, yet he was hurt and angry ment of the wedding, he never slackened all the same that his Mary should think in his pursuit of the shrinking, unhappy less well of him. He seemed to himself girl, who, on her side, had betrayed her of late to have done a great deal for her weakness to her sister on the first menand her children. No idea of the eleva- tion of the hateful suitor. Edith was tion she had now reached had been in her disenchanted too, as well as her mother. mind when they married. There were She comprehended none of them. “I three brothers then between him and the would not do it," she said simply, when title, besides the children of the elder. the struggle was at its bitterest; "why And now that things had so come about, do you do it?" Rintoul, for his part, as that Mary was actually Countess of when he appeared upon the scene, reLindores, he could not but feel that he peated Edith's positivism in a different had done a great deal for her. Yet she way. "I think my father is quite right," was not grateful. She looked at him with he said. "What could Carry look for? those scrutinizing, alarmed eyes. She She is not pretty; she is twenty-four. turned away from him with painful won- You ought to take these things into conder; with there was no doubt of it- sideration, mother. She has lost her disapproval. And yet all he wanted was chance of any of the prizes; and when the advancement of the family-the real you have here the very thing, a man rollgood of his daughter. Who could doubting in money-and not a tradesman what his motive was? or that it was for either, which many girls have to put up Carry's good to have a noble establish- with—it is such a chance as not one in a ment, a fortune that a princess might thousand ever gets. I think Car ought envy? Could there be any comparison to be very grateful to papa.' Lady Linbetween that and the marriage with a poor dores listened with a gasp Robin too! barrister, upon which, in her first folly, But she did not call him Robin for a long she had set her heart? It was unreason- time after that day. He was Rintoul to able beyond measure, ungrateful, that his her as to the rest of the world, his father's quite legitimate determination, judging heir, very clearly alive to the advantage for the real advantage of his daughter, of having, when his time came, no proshould be thus looked upon by Lady Lin- vision for his sister hanging like a milldores. stone round his neck. His sympathy and But it would be vain to attempt to de-approval were delightful to his father. scribe the struggle that followed: that domestic tragedy would have to be told at length if told at all, and it included various tragedies; not only the subjugation of poor Carry, the profanation of her life, and cruel rending of her heart, but such a gradual enlightening and clearing away of all the lovely prejudices and prepossessions of affection from the eyes of Lady Lindores, as was almost as cruel. The end of it was, that one of these poor women, broken in heart and spirit, forced into a marriage she hated, and feeling herself outraged and degraded, began her life in bitterness and misery with a pretence of splendor and success and good fortune which made the real state of affairs still more deplorable; and the other, feeling all the beauty of her life gone from her, her eyes disenchanted, a pitiless cold daylight revealing every angle once hid by the glamor of love and tender fancy, began a sort of second existence alone. If Torrance had been determined before to have Lady Caroline for his wife,

"Women are such queer cattle, you never know how to take them," the experienced young man said. A man is not in a crack regiment for nothing. He had more knowledge of the world than his father had. "I should have thought my mother would have been delighted to settle Carry so near home."

Thus it was a very strange divided house upon the eve of this marriage. To add to the confusion, there was great squabbling over the settlements, which Pat Torrance, eager though he was to secure the bride, whom his pride and selfwill, as well as what he believed to be his love, had determined to have at all costs, was by no means so liberal about as the earl thought necessary. He fought this out step by step, even venturing to hint, like the brute he was, that it was no beauty or belle whom he was marrying, and cutting down the requirements of her side in the most business-like way. Lady Lindores had been entirely silenced, and looked after the indispensable matters

2

of her daughter's trousseau without a trace of the usual cheerful bustle attending wedding preparations; while Carry Edith, Edith! do not torture your sisseemed to live in a dream, sometimes ter. It is easy to say such things, but rousing up to make an appeal to her fa- how are you to do them? God knows, I ther's pity, but mostly in a sort of passive would not mind what I did if it was only state, too heart-broken to be excited about me. I would fly away with her someanything. Edith, young and curious, where escape from them all. But what moved about in the midst of it all in the would happen? Our family would be activity of her independence, as yet rent asunder. Your father and 1"touched by none of these things. She Lady Lindores's voice quivered a little was a sort of rebellion impersonated, scarcely comprehending the submission of the others. While Carry wept she stood looking on, her face flushed, her eyes brilliant. "I would not do it," she said. These words were constantly on her lips.

CHAPTER VII.

She was incapable of understanding how her ample figure and draperies, the line of there could be any difficulty in the case. a grey dress, the occasional flutter of a The marriage took place, however, in ribbon, the putting forth of a small foot, spite of these convulsions, and several made the young man aware of the other years had elapsed since that event. It creature wrapped in soft silence and maidwas an old affair when John Erskine, enly reserve, whom he could image to newly arrived, and full of curiosity and in himself all the more completely that he terest, had that encounter with Lady Lin-saw no more of her. He scarcely heard dores and her daughter at his own gate, her voice as they walked along thus near where something of the outline of this yet separated; but a great many things story was communicated to him the that Lady Lindores said were confused facts of it at least. The ladies did not by the sound upon the road of her daughlinger upon Carry's marriage in their nar-ter's step-by the appearance of that bit rative. He was told of it briefly as an of ribbon, with which the sunny wind did event long over, and to which everybody not hesitate to play, floating out in adhad got accustomed. And so it was. The vance of her, catching the young man's most miserable of events settle down into eye. Thus all at once, on the very first the routine of life when a few years have day after his return, another new existelapsed. Carry herself long ago had ac-ence began for John Erskine on the road cepted her fate, trying to persuade herself between Dalrulzian and Lindores. that an unhappy marriage was nothing out of the common, and taking such comfort as was possible in poetry and intellectual THERE are few things in human affairs musings. Her husband, who neither more curious than the structure of what knew nor cared for anything above his is called society, wherever it is met with, own rude external world, yet felt her po- whether in the most primitive of its deetry to enhance the delicacy of her being, velopments or on the higher levels. The and to raise Lady Car more and more to perpetual recurrence of a circle within that height of superiority which was what which the sayings and doings of certain he had sought in her, was all the better individuals are more important than anysatisfied with his bargain, though all the thing else in earth or heaven, and where more separated from any possible point the conversation persistently rolls back, of junction with her. The neighborhood whatever may be its starting-point, to was very well aware of all the circum- what this or that little knot of people are stances; and though Lady Lindores en-doing, to the eccentricities of one and the tered into no explanations, yet there was banalities of another, to some favorite a sigh, and a tone in her voice, as she individual scene of tragedy or comedy spoke of her daughter, which suggested which forms the centre of the moral landsorrow. But to tell the truth, young John scape is always apparent to the obErskine, suddenly finding such friends at server, whether his observations are made his very door, suddenly readmitted into in Kamtchatka or in London, among the old intimacy, and finding the dull washerwomen or princesses. But under country life to which he had been looking no circumstances is this so evident as to forward flash into sunshine and pleasure, a new-comer in a region where all the made few inquiries into this darker chap- people know each other. The novelty ter of the family history; and in reality and freshness of his impressions perhaps cared for nothing much but to convince make him congratulate himself for a mohimself that the Lindores family were ment that now at last he has got into a really his next neighbors; that they were society fresh and original, with features quite willing to receive him on the old of its own; but half-a-dozen meetings are footing; and that, demurely walking along enough to prove to him that he has only the same road on the other side of her got into another round, a circle as little mother, saying little but touching the en- extended, as much shut up in its own tire atmosphere with a sense of her pres-ring, as all the rest. This was what John ence, was Edith Lindores. Perhaps, had he actually been by her side, the sensation being more definite would have been less entrancing. But her mother was between them, animated and pleased by the meeting, ready to tell him all that had happened, and to hear his account of himself, with friendly interest; while beyond

Erskine found, with a little amusement and a little disgust, almost as soon as he got settled in his unknown home. Any addition to their society was interesting to the country folks, especially in May, when there is not much doing — when those who can indulge themselves in the pleasures of the season have gone to Lon

-

a young lad at the time I got my cominission. They were ill able to afford my outfit at home, and I'm much mistaken if old Dalrulzian did not lend a helping hand; so mind you, my lad, if young Dalrulzian should ever want one-a day in harvest, as the proverb goes

don, and those who cannot are bound to bring forth their philosophy and prove that they enjoy the country in the early summer, even though there is nothing to do. But a young man unencumbered and alone, with all his life before him, and all his connections to form, is perhaps of all others the most interesting human crea- "You are very kind, sir," said John ture who can come into a new sphere. Erskine again: he was touched, but half All the world is curious about him, both amused as well. It seemed so unlikely those whose lives he may influence, and that he should require the old general's those to whom he can contribute nothing helping hand. And then they talked of but the interest, perhaps of a new drama, the country, and of their previous lives perhaps only of a new face. He who will and diverse experiences. Sir James was enact his own story publicly before the one of those primitive men, much more eyes of his neighbors, falling in love, woo- usual a generation ago than now, whose ing, marrying, or, still better, carrying on knowledge of life, which to his own thinkthese processes with interruptions of non- ing was profound and extensive, left out success and threatenings of postpone the greater part of what in our days is ment, what a godsend he is! and perhaps known as life at all. He knew Scotland scarcely less he who brings in darker and India, and nothing more. He was elements into the placid tenor of the gen- great in expedients for dealing with the eral history, and ruins himself for our natives on one hand, and full of a hundred instruction, while we all look on with stories of village humor, fun, and pawki bated breath. To the country-side in ness on the other. To hear him laugh general, John Erskine, while as yet un- over one of these anecdotes till the tears known, was a new hero. He was the stood in his clear, warm blue eyes, which beginning of a romance with all the more were untouched by any dimness of time, fascination in it that the most interested was worth all the witticisms ever printed; spectator for a long time could form but and to see him bend his fine old brows little idea how it was to turn. As soon as over the characteristics of his old subjects he was known to be at home, his neigh- in India, and the ameliorations of characbors came down upon him from all quarter produced by British rule, firmness, ters with friendly greetings, invitations, offers of kindness on all sides. The first to appear was Sir James Montgomery, a sunburnt and cheerful old soldier, whose small estate of Chiefs wood "marched" on one side with Dalrulzian, and who was disposed to be very friendly. He came in beaming with smiles over all his brown, jovial countenance, and holding out a large, cordial hand.

Well, young man, so this is you at last. You're heartily welcome home. I've been long away myself, and you've never been here, but we're old neighbors for all that, and I take it upon me to call myself an old friend."

"You are very kind," John said, suffering his hand to be engulfed in that kind, warm, capacious grasp. The old soldier held him at arm's length for a moment, looking at him with friendly eyes.

"I remember your grandfather well," he said; "not so much of your father, for he came to man's estate, and died, poor lad, when I was away; but I see some features of the old man in you, my young friend, and I'm glad to see them. You'll seldom meet with a better man than your grandfather. He was very kind to me as

and justice, was better than philosophy. But with that which young John Erskine knew as life he had no acquaintance. Save his own country and the distant East, the globe was wrapped in dimness to him. He had passed through London often, and had even transacted business at the Horse Guards, though an Indian officer in those days had little to do with that centre of military authority; but he had a mingled awe and horror of " town," and thought of the Continent as of a region of temptation where the devil was far more apparent than in other places, and sought whom he might devour with much more openness and less hindrance than at home. And when our young man, who flattered himself a little on his knowl edge of society and the world, as he understood the phrase, unfolded himself before the innocent patriarch, their amazement at each other was mutual. Old Sir James contemplated John in his knowl edge with something of the same amused respect which John on his side felt for him in his ignorance. To each there was in the other a mixture of a boy and a sage, which made them each to each half absurd and half wonderful. An old fel

low, who must have seen so much to have
seen so little! and a mere bit of a lad, Sir
James said to himself, who knew nothing
about India or anything serious, yet had
seen a vast deal, and had, very just no-
tions, and spoke like a man of the world
when you came to talk to him!
It was
thus the senior who did most justice to
the junior, as is usually the case.

"I am afraid," Sir James said, "that you'll find our country-side but dull after all you've seen. We're pleased with our selves, as most ignorant people are: we think we're good enough company on the whole, but music, or the play, or art, or that kind of thing, you'll find us wanting in. I'm afraid they find us very wanting at Lindores; but as for a kind welcome, whenever you like and however you like, and a good Scots dinner, and sometimes a dance, if that will content you in the way of company

I should be hard to please if that would not content me," said John. "I hope you will give me the chance."

66

Sir

we

in the county. I met them long ago on the Continent."

66

'Ah! —ay; that's just what I say — for anything foreign, you'll have to go to the Castle," said Sir James, a little doubtfully. "But," he added, after a moment's pause, "I hope you'll take to us and your own country, and need no 'foreign aid of ornament,' eh? You must forgive me. I'm an old fellow, and old-fashioned. In my time it used to be thought that your French and Italians were well, no better than they should be. Germans, they tell me, are a more solid race; but I know little difference- I know little difference. You'll say that's my ignorance," said this man of prejudice, beaming upon his companion with a smile in which there was a little deprecation, but a great deal of simple confidence. It was impossible not to condone the errors of a censor so inno

cent.

"If you knew them, you would not only see a great deal of difference, but I think you would like them a great deal better than you suppose," John said.

"Very likely very likely," cried Sir James. It occurred to him suddenly that if his young friend had indeed, poor lad, been brought up among those "foreign cattle," an unfavorable opinion of them might hurt his feelings; and this was the last thing the old man would have done even to a foreigner in person, much less to a son of the soil temporarily seduced by the wiles of strangers. And then he

"That we will that we will," said James heartily; and then he added, have no young people about us - Lady Montgomery and me. Our two children are as far from children now as their father and mother. They are both in India, and their families grown up and gone out to them. So we have nothing young of our own about the house; but don't go too fast, we're not without attraction. In a week, I think, we're expecting a visitor that will make the place bright Miss repeated his formula about being an old Barrington Nora Barrington; you'll fellow and old-fashioned. "And you'll have heard of her by this time. She's mind to expect nothing but broad Scotch a great favorite in the country. We are at Chiefswood," he cried, laughing and all keen to have her and to keep her. I'm waving his hand as he rode away, after not afraid that a young man will find us the hearty invitation with which every dull when we've Nora in the house." visitor ended. "You'll get the other at Lindores."

Here John, who had become suspicious of the name of this girl whom everybody insisted on recommending to him, eagerly protested that he should want no foreign attraction to the house in which the kind old general was.

Foreign! No, she's not foreign," said Sir James; "far from that. A bonnie English girl, which, after a bonnie Scotch lassie, is by far the best thing going. We must stand up for our own first," said the old soldier laughing; "but nothing foreign-nothing foreign: if you want that, you will have to go to Lindores." John felt

- he could scarcely tell why slightly irritated by these references to Lindores. He said, somewhat elaborately, They are the only people I really know

And the door had scarcely closed upon this new acquaintance when the earl made his appearance, with the smile of an old friend, quite willing to acknowledge old relationships, but not too familiar or enthusiastic in his claim. He was no longer · the languid gentleman he had been in the old wandering days, but had the fresh color and active step of a man who lived much out of doors. "The scene is very different," he said, with kindness but dignity. "We are all changed more or less; but the sentiments are the same." He said this with something of the air of a prince graciously renewing acquaintance with a friend of his exile. "I hope we shall see you often at the Castle. We are your nearest neighbors; and when