she said, with a half-threatening smile but a slight quiver of her lip, "the time that yon poor lad's away?" This encounter was scarcely over when he had another claim made upon him by Beaufort, who suddenly rushed in, breathless and effusive, catching him by both hands and pouring forth congratulations. It was only then that it occurred to John as strange that Beaufort had not appeared at Dunearn, or taken any apparent interest in his fate; but the profuse explanations and excuses of his friend had the usual effect in directing his mind towards this dereliction from evident duty. Beaufort overflowed in confused apologies. "I did go to Dunearn, but I was too late; and I did not like to follow you to your aunt's, whom I don't know; and then and then The fact is, I had an engagement," was the end of the whole; and as he said this, a curious change and movement came over Beaufort's face. "An engagement! I did not think you knew anybody." "No, nor do I, except those I have known for years." "The Lindores?" John said hastily, 'they were all at Dunearn." "The fact is Here Beaufort paused and walked to the fire, which was low, and poked it vigorously. He had nearly succeeded in making an end of it altogether before he resumed. "The fact is," with his back to John, 'I thought it only proper to call and make inquiries.' He cleared his throat, then said hurriedly, "In short, Erskine, I have been to Tinto." There was a tremulous sound in his voice which went to John's heart. Who was he that he should blame his brother? A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind. pour out to the other the changes in their 66 Lord Millefleurs went away a few days after; but Beaufort considered that, on the whole, it would suit him better to remain in Scotland a little longer. "What can I do for you?" he said; "the duke is deceiving himself. You are quite as well able to look after yourself as I am. Why should I pretend to exercise functions which we all know are quite unnecessary? I have only just come, and Erskine is willing to keep me. I think I shall stay." My dear fellow," said little Millefleurs, "your sentiments are mine to a T; but we agreed, don't you know? that the duke has a great many things in his power, and that it might be as well to humor him. You have eased his mind, don't you know? and why shouldn't you get the good of it? You are too viewy and disinterested, and that sort of thing. But I am a practical man. Come along!" said Millefleurs. When Beaufort continued to shake his head, as he puffed out solemn mouthfuls of smoke, planting himself ever more deeply, as if to take root there, in his easy-chair, Millefleurs turned to John and appealed to him. "Make that fellow come along, Erskine; it will be for his good," the little marquis said. There was a little pucker in his smooth forehead. "Do you mean that you have gone over "Life is not plain sailing," he went on; all that already?" John asked, amazed." les convenances are not such humbug as But Beaufort made him no reply. The men suppose. Look here, Beaufort, come fumes of that meeting were still in his along; it will be better for you, don't you head, and all that he had said and all that know had been said to him. The master of the house was scarcely out of it, so to speak; his shadow was still upon the great room, the staircases, and passages; but Carry had lived, it seemed to her, years, since the decree of freedom was pronounced for her. If there was indecorum in his visit, she was unaware of it. To feel themselves together, to be able each to "Déjà !" was that all John said. "Déjà-yes; perhaps I ought to have waited. But when you reflect how long - how long it is: and all that has happened, and what we both have suffered He "I am sick of thinking what is better for me," said Beaufort."I shall please myself for once in my life. What have the convenances to do with me?" did not meet the look of his junior and supposed pupil, but got up and threw away his cigar and stalked to the window, where his long figure shut out almost all the light. Little Millefleurs folded his now plump hands, and shook his round, boyish head. The other was a much more dig. nified figure, but his outline against the light had a limp irresolution in it. He knew that he ought to go away; but how could he do it? To find your treasure that was lost after so many years, and then go straight away and leave it- was that possible? And then, perhaps, it had flashed across Beaufort's mind, who had been hanging on waiting for fortune so long, and never had bestirred himself, perhaps it flashed upon him that now the duke's patronage, and the places and promotions in his power, might be of less importance. But this was only a shadow flying like the shadows of the hills upon which he was gazing, involuntary, so that he was not to blame for it. Millefleurs went away alone next day. He took a very tender farewell of the ladies at Lindores, asking permission to write to them. "And if I hear anything of her, don't you know? I shall tell you,' he said to Edith, holding her hand affectionately in both of his. "You must hear something of her -you must go and find her," said Edith. Millefleurs put his head on one side like a sentimental robin. "But it is quite unsuitable, don't you know?" he said, and drove away, kissing his hand with many a tender token of friendship. Lord Lindores could scarcely endure to see these evidences of an affectionate parting. He had come out, as in duty bound, to speed the parting guest with the proper smile of hospitable regret; but as soon as Millefleurs was out of sight, turned upon his heel with an expression of disgust. "He is a little fool, if he is not a little humbug. I wonder if he ever was in earnest at all?" This was addressed to Rintoul, who of late had avoided all such subjects, and now made no reply. "I don't think that would do," said Rintoul, with a troubled look. "I have made engagements - for nearly every day." "You had better speak out at once. Tell me, what I know you are thinking, that the duke's daughter, because your father suggests her, is not to be thought of. You are all alike. I once thought you had some sense, Rintoul." "I-I hope I have so still. I don't think it is good taste to bring in a lady's name "I should like to speak to you on-on the whole subject- some time or other," "said the young man. He was like a man eager to give a blow, yet so frightened that he ran away in the very act of delivering it. Lord Lindores looked at him with suspicious eyes. "I don't know any reason why you shouldn't speak now. It would be well that we should understand each other," he said. But this took away all power from Rintoul. He almost trembled as he stood before his father's too keen, too penetrating eyes. "Oh, don't let me trouble you now,' he said nervously; "and besides, I have something to do. Dear me, it is three o'clock!" he cried, looking at his watch and hurrying away. But he had really no engagement for three o'clock. It was the time when Nora, escaping from her old lady, came out for a walk; and they had met on several occasions, though never by appointment. Nora, for her part, would not have consented to make any appointment. Already she began to feel herself in a false position. She was willing to accept and keep inviolable the secret with which he had trusted her; but that she herself, a girl full of high-mindedness and honor, should be his secret too, and carry on a clandestine intercourse which nobody knew anything of, was to Nora the last humiliation. She had not written home since it happened; for to "write home and not to tell her mother of what had happened, would have seemed to the girl falsehood. She felt false with Miss Barbara; she had an intolerable sense at once of being wronged, and "I say, I wonder whether he ever meant anything serious at all?" said Lord Lindores, in a tone of irritation, having called his son into the library after him; "and you don't even take the trouble to answer me. But one thing he has done, he has invited you to Ess Castle; and as I suggested to you before, there is Lady Reseda, a very nice girl, in every way desirable "I have had my leave already," said Rintoul hastily. "It was kind of Millefleurs; but I don't see how I can go "I never knew before that there was any such serious difficulty about leave," said his father. "You can cut off your last fortnight here." wrong, in the presence of Lady Lindores | ished to say a word. He made a step or and Edith. She would no more have two after her, but she called to him that made an appointment to meet him than she would not suffer it, and walked on she would have told a lie. But poor Nora, at full speed. Rintoul looked after her who was only a girl after all, notwith- aghast. He tried to laugh to himself, and standing these high principles of hers, to say, "Oh, it is that, is it?" but he took her walk daily along the Lindores could not. There was nothing gratifying road. It was the quietest, the prettiest. to his pride to be got out of the incident She had always liked it better than any at all. He turned after she was out of other so she said to herself; and nat- sight, and went home crest-fallen. She urally Rintoul, who could not go to Dun- never turned round, nor looked back, earn save by that way, met her there. made no sign of knowing that he stood She received him, not with any rosy flush there watching her. Poor Rintoul crept of pleasure, but with a blush that was along homeward in the early gloaming hot and angry, resolving that to-morrow with a heavy heart. He would have to she would turn her steps in a different beard the lions, then - no help for it; indirection, and that this should not occur deed he had always intended to do it, but again; and she did not even give him her not now, when there was so much exhand when they met, as she would have citement in the air. done to the doctor or the minister, or any one of the ordinary passers-by. "You are angry with me, Nora,” he said. "I don't know that I have any right to be angry. We have very little to do with each other, Lord Rintoul." "Nora!" he cried; "Nora! do you want to break my heart? What is this? It is not so very long since "It is long enough," she said, "to let me see- It is better that we should not say anything more about that. One is a fool 1 one is taken by surprise - one does not think what it means "Do you imagine I will let myself be thrown off like this?" he cried, with great agitation. Nora, why should you de spise me so-all for the sake of old Rolls?" CHAPTER XLV. ROLLS in the county jail, sent hither on his own confession, was in a very different position from John Erskine, waiting examination there. He was locked up without ceremony in a cell, his respectability and his well-known antecedents all ignored. Dunnotter was at some distance from the district in which he was known, and Thomas Rolls, domestic servant, charged with manslaughter, did not impress the official imagination as Mr. Rolls the factotum of Dalrulzian had long impressed the mind of his own neighborhood and surroundings. And Rolls, to tell the truth, was deeply depressed when he found himself shut up within that blank interior, with nothing to do, and nothing to support the amour propre which was his strength, except the inborn conviction of his own righteousness and exemplary position, a sight for all men. But there is nothing that takes down the sense of native merit so much as solitude and absence of appreciation. Opposition and hostility are stimulants and keep warm in us the sense of our own superiority, but not the contemptuous indifference of a "I was not thinking of Rolls," cried surly turnkey to whom one is No. 25, and Nora, who had tried to break in on this who cared not a straw for Rolls's position flood of eloquence in vain. "I was think- and career. He felt himself getting limp ing of Lord Rintoul, I am not a per- as the long, featureless days went on, and son of rank like you I don't know what doubts of every kind assailed him. Had lords and ladies think it right to do - but he been right to do it? Since he had I will not have clandestine meetings with made this sacrifice for his master, there any one. If a man wants me, if he were had come into his mind a chill of doubt a prince, he must ask my father, he which he had never been touched by bemust do it in the eye of day, not as if he fore. Was it certain that it was John who were ashamed. Good-bye! do not expect had done it? Might not he, Rolls, be me to see you any more." She turned as making a victim of himself for some she spoke, waved her hand, and walked nameless tramp, who would never even quickly away. He was too much aston- know of it, nor care, and whose punish "It is not all for the sake of old Rolls." "I will go and see him, if you like, today. I will find out from him what he means. It is his own doing, it is not my doing. You know I was more surprised than any one. Nora, think! If you only think, you will see that you are unreasonable. How could I stand up and contradict a man who had accused himself?" he said, "a' that for standing up and discoursing before the court! And most of them are real well pleased to hear themselves speak, if it were without fee or reward. I think shame to have a' that siller spent upon me; but it's a grand thing of the young master, and a great compliment: it will please Bauby, too." - "He ought to have come to see you, so old a servant, and most faithful one," said Mr. Monypenny. Well-awell, sir, there's many things to be said: a gentleman has things to do; there's a number of calls upon his time. He would mean well, I make no doubt, and then he would forget; but to put his hand in his pocket like that! Bauby will be very well pleased. I am glad, poor woman, that she has the like of that to keep up her heart." "Well, Rolls, I am glad to see that you are so grateful. Thinking over all the circumstances, and that you lost no time ment would be doubly deserved and worthy of no man's interference? Rolls felt that this was a suggestion of the devil for his discomfiture. He tried to chase it out of his mind by thinking of the pleasures he had secured for himself in that last week of his life of Edinburgh Castle and the Calton Jail and the Earthen Mound and the wonders of the Observatory. To inspect these had been the dream of his life, and he had attained that felicity. He had believed that this would give him "plenty to think about" for the rest of his life and that, especially for the time of his confinement, it would afford an excellent provision; but he did not find the solace that he had expected in musing upon Mons Meg and the Scottish regalia. How dreadful four walls become when you are shut up within them; how the air begins to hum and buzz after a while with your thoughts that have escaped you, and swarm about like bees, all murmurous and unresting-in giving the alarm, and did your best to these were the discoveries he made. Rolls grew nervous, almost hysterical, in the unusual quiet. What would he not have given for his plate to polish, or his lamps to trim! He had been allowed to have what are called writing materials, a few dingy sheets of note-paper, a penny bottle of ink, a rusty steel pen · but Rolls was not accustomed to literary composition and a few books - but Rolls was scornful of what he called "novelles," and considered even more serious reading as an occupation which required thought and a mind free of care. And nobody came to see him. He had no effusion of gratitude and sweet praise from his master. Mr Monypenny was Rolls's only visitor, who came to take all his explanations, and get a perfect understanding of how his case ought to be conducted. The butler had become rather limp and feeble before even Mr. Monypenny appeared. "I'm maybe not worthy of much," Rolls said, with a wave of his hand, "but I think there's one or two might have come to see me one or two." "I think so too, Rolls; but it is not want of feeling. I have instructions from Mr. Erskine to spare no expense; to have the very best man that can be had. And I make no doubt we'll carry you through. I'm thinking of trying Jardine, who is at the very top of the tree." "And what will that cost, if I may make so bold, Mr. Monypenny ? When he heard the sum that was needed for the advocate's fee, Rolls's countenance fell, but his spirit rose. "Lord bless us!" have succor carried to him, I think I may say that you will be let off very easy. I would not be astonished if you were discharged at once. In any case it will be a light sentence. You may keep your mind easy about that." "It's all in the hands of Providence," said Rolls. He was scarcely willing to allow that his position was one to be considered so cheerfully. "It will be a grand exhibition o' eloquence," he said; "and will there be as much siller spent, and as great an advocate on the other side, Mr. Monypenny? It's a wonderful elevating thought to think that the best intellects in the land will be warstlin' ower a simple body like me. "And that is true, Rolls; they will just warstle over ye it will be a treat to hear it. And if I get Jardine, he will do it con amore, for he's a sworn enemy to the procurator, and cannot bide the lord advocate. He's a tremendous speaker when he's got a good subject; and he'll do it con amore." "Well-awell, sir; if it's con amoray or con anything else, sae long as he can convince the jury," said Rolls. He was pleased with the importance of this point of view; but when Mr. Monypenny left him, it required all his strength of mind to apply this consolation. "If they would but do it quick, I wouldna stand upon the honor of the thing," he said to himself. Next day, however, he had a visitor who broke the tedium very effectually. Rolls could not believe his eyes when his door suddenly opened, and Lord Rintoul and burn holes into his very soul. Rintoul pushed away his chair, and tried to avoid this look. Then he perceived, suddenly, that he had appropriated the only chair, and that Rolls, whom he had no de came in. The young man was very much embarrassed, and divided, apparently, between a somewhat fretful shame and a desire to show great cordiality. He went so far as to shake hands with Rolls, and then sat down on the only chair, not seem-sire to irritate, but quite the reverse, was ing to know what to do next. At length he burst forth, coloring up to his hair, "I want to know what made you say that? - for you know it's not true." Rolls, surprised greatly by his appear. ance at all, was thunderstruck by this sudden demand. "I don't just catch your meaning, my lord," he said. "Oh, my meaning - my meaning is not very difficult. What are you here for? Is it on Erskine's account? Did he make any arrangement? What is he to do for you?" said Rintoul hurriedly. "It is all such a mystery to me, I don't know what to make of it. When I heard you say it, I could not believe my ears." Rolls looked at him with a very steady gaze a gaze which gradually became unbearable to the young man. "Don't stare at me," he cried roughly, "but answer me. What is the meaning of it? — that's what I want to know." standing. He rose up hastily and thrust the chair towards him. "Look here," he said, "hadn't you better sit down? I didn't observe it was the only seat in the - room." They call this a cell, my lord, and we're in a jyel, not a private mansion. I'm a man biding the course of the law." "Oh yes, yes, yes! I know all that: why should you worry me?" cried Rintoul. He wanted to be civil and friendly, but he did not know how. "We are all in a muddle," he said, "and don't see a step before us. Why have you done it? What object had he in asking you, or you in doing it? Can't you tell me? I'll make it all square with Erskine if you'll tell me : and I should know better what to do." "You take a great interest in methat was never any connection, nor even a servant in your lordship's family. It's awfu' sudden," said Rolls; "but I'll tell you what, my lord, I'll make a bargain with you. If you'll tell me what reason you have for wanting to ken, I will tell you whatfor I'm here." "Your lordship," said Rolls slowly," is beginning at the hinder end of the subjik, so far as I can see. Maybe ye will tell me first, my lord, what right ye have to come into a jyel that belangs to the Rintoul looked at Rolls with a confused queen's maist sacred Majesty, as the and anxious gaze, knowing that the latter minister says, and question me, a person on his side was reading him far more awaiting my trial? Are ye a commis- effectually. "You see," he said, "I was sioner, or are ye an advocate, or maybe somewhere about the wood. I - I with authority from the procurator himsel'? I never heard that you had any thing to do with the law." "I'm sure I beg your pardon," said Rintoul, subduing himself. "No; I've nothing to do with the law. I dare say I'm very abrupt. I don't know how to put it, you know; but you remember I was there at least I wasn't far off: I was the first person that came. They'll call me for a witness at the trial, I sup. pose. Can't you see what a confusing sort of thing it is for me. I know, you know. Don't you know I know? Why, how could you have done it when it was Look here, it would be a great relief to me, and to another to a ladywho takes a great interest in you- if you would speak out plain." The eyes of Rolls were small and grey, -they were not distinguished by any brightness or penetrating quality; but any kind of eyes, when fixed immovably upon a man's face, especially a man who has anything to hide, become insupportable, see don't pretend to mean that I could |