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If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Master of Aberfeldie, Volume II (of 3) - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: June 14, 2021 [eBook #65616] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER OF ABERFELDIE, VOLUME -II (OF 3) *** - - - - - - - THE MASTER OF ABERFELDIE - - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT - - AUTHOR OF - "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "THE CAMERONIANS," - "THE SCOTTISH CAVALIER," - ETC., ETC. - - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOL. II. - - - - LONDON: - HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, - 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. - 1884. - - _All rights reserved._ - - - - - Contents - - Chapter - - I. Mystery - II. A Modern Use for a Mediæval Institution - III. Holcroft Departs - IV. Suspense - V. The Oubliette - VI. Cead Mille Maloch! - VII. Lovers - VIII. At Maviswood - IX. 'Alice!' - X. 'The Mysteries of Udolpho.' - XI. 'Gup,' and What Came of It - XII. Olive's Visitor - XIII. Wedded - XIV. Mistrust - XV. The Black Watch - XVI. In the Belvidere - XVII. The Route - XVIII. 'Idiots only will be Cozened Twice.' - XIX. In the Land of the Pharaohs - XX. The March through Goshen - - - - -THE MASTER OF ABERFELDIE. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -MYSTERY. - -So all the guests had quitted Dundargue now but Hawke Holcroft. In -two days he was to depart for what he called 'his chambers in town;' -thus Allan was compelled to continue his polite dissimulation, and be -on suave and apparently easy terms with him as a guest, though the -latter felt that there was an undefinable change in his manner -towards him. - -Indeed, it was only by a great effort of self-control that the Master -of Aberfeldie, a man with the highest and keenest sense of honour, -and knowing all he did, continued to treat Holcroft with politeness; -but he writhed and shivered when he heard him, in the drawing-room or -elsewhere, address Olive or Eveline. - -All the forenoon after Cameron's departure, when poor little Eveline -was most triste and miserable, our other pair of lovers were very -happy. They had what they were pleased to call 'a picnic' on the -tower-head of Dundargue. Allan's portion thereof was cigars, and -Olive's a little basket of purple grapes and luscious strawberries -(though the season was autumn) from the hothouses. - -So with these two, the hours passed sweetly and swiftly, with the -blue sky overhead, while far away in the distance, and steeped in -sunny haze, stretched the lovely Carse of Gowrie; and talking of -themselves, their past folly, their present joy, and the brilliant -future that was to come, they billed and cooed after the fashion of -all lovers since flowers grew in Eden. - -Allan lolled at length on the stone bartizan of the tower whence -molten lead and arrows had more than once been launched on a foe -beneath, Olive with her fair head reclined against his shoulder -toying with her fruit, while he did so with her silky hair, or kissed -her lips and hands, and called her all manner of funny and endearing -names that would look rather odd in print; and yet amid their present -happiness it was strange that each wondered more than once, if -coldness or estrangement would ever come between them again. - -Never--oh, never. - -'You complained that the gardeners saw me kissing you in the rosery -yesterday, Olive,' said Allan. 'Now, little woman, who should I kiss -if I don't kiss you? Well, only the crows overhead can see us up -here, at all events.' - -But now as he toyed with her hands, marvelling as he did so at their -whiteness and beauty, and anon played with the bangles that encircled -her rounded arms, he bethought of the one worn--yes, actually -worn--by Holcroft, and silently he resolved to possess himself of it -without delay; so, ere the bell rang for luncheon, he made an excuse, -conducted his cousin, with many a pause and long delay which were not -idly spent, down the dark and winding staircase from the head of the -tower. - -In his new-found happiness until now he had forgotten all about the -bangle, which--perhaps for some ulterior purpose of his own--Holcroft -seemed to have quietly appropriated, and by whom he wished it -returned without any fuss or explanation. - -To this end he sought that personage after luncheon was over, and was -sure he would find him either practising strokes in the -billiard-room, in the smoking-room, or stables, watching the horses -and catching hints from the grooms. - -He found him in the first-named place, cue in hand. - -'Ready for a game?' said he. - -'No, thanks.' - -'Sorry; Cameron, and everyone is gone. I'm reduced to playing the -right hand against the left.' - -'And while playing I perceive that you have a gold bangle of Miss -Raymond's on your left wrist?' - -'Yes,' replied Holcroft, leisurely--Allan thought impertinently. - -'Did she give it to you?' - -'Why do you ask?' - -'_Did_ she give it to you?' repeated Allan, with a dangerous gleam in -his dark eyes. - -'No.' - -'How comes it to be there, then?' - -'Don't take to high falutin. I slipped it on in mere fun, and it -will not come off again. - -'Indeed! allow me.' - -And Allan, in a moment, by twisting the ductile Indian gold, wrenched -it off, and Holcroft's eyes had a malevolent flash in them as he -stooped to strike a ball. - -'Thanks,' said Allan, pocketing the bangle. 'Now we shall have a -cigar.' - -For a moment he felt a little ashamed of his sudden irritation, and -proffered his cigar-case to Holcroft, who smiled his thanks and -accepted a Havana. - -The Master was younger and handsomer than he; the heir to an ancient -title and estate; he had the envied prestige of having borne himself -bravely when under fire with the Black Watch, and had a goodly crop -of medals--not so many as my Lord Wolseley, of course--but still, -when in uniform, a goodly display. - -He had all the advantages over Hawke Holcroft that one man could have -over another; and in his heart of hearts the other hated--yea, with a -bitter and deadly hate--Allan Graham--a hate beyond his love, real or -supposed, for Olive Raymond, natheless all Olive's beauty and her -money--his chief lure and incentive. - -While conversing and joking together in the smoking-room, or on the -terrace, amid the pleasures of the table, knocking the balls about at -billiards or so forth, how little could the unconscious Allan have -dreamed that his father's guest--the son of his old friend--had been -pondering over the art of 'Killing no murder;' of accidents brought -about in the hunting-field, at cover shooting, or hill-climbing; even -of dynamite cigars! Had he not heard of such things at Monaco, -Homburg, and elsewhere. - -He knew that there was quite a manufactory of such cigars at -Temeswar, in Austria; but wherever were such pleasant gifts 'to be -obtained in an out-of-the-way hole like the Carse of Gowrie?' - -His teeth under his moustache glittered or glistened whitely when -such ideas occurred to him; though he chatted away with perhaps -forced _insouciance_ and gaiety, under all his assumed ease of manner -there smouldered a lava-like glow--mingled hate of Allan and coveting -of Olive, but with an emotion of a much coarser nature, combined with -greed. - -Seeing Clairette, Olive's maid, passing, Allan made up the bangle in -a little packet as he still wished no more explanations on the -subject, and desired her to give it to her mistress. - -'You and Miss Raymond seem exceedingly good friends now,' said -Holcroft. - -'We were never otherwise,' replied Allan, curtly, and displeased by -the remark. - -'What a prize in matrimony such a girl must be, with so much beauty -and--wealth.' - -'It is sometimes a misfortune for a girl to be rich, or to be thought -so,' said Allan. - -'Why?' - -'Because she may become the prey of some needy fortune-hunter or -enterprising scamp.' - -Holcroft winced at the reply, though it was made casually and without -the least design by Allan. - -'But in marrying, Miss Raymond might perhaps be poor enough.' - -'What paradox is this?' asked Holcroft, thoroughly interested, while -Allan felt some disdain at discussing such matters with such a man. - -'Yes, poor as a church mouse, unless--' - -'Unless what?' - -'She marries _me_,' replied Allan, who, with perhaps pardonable -pique, only thought of provoking a man who had tried to rival him, -and whom he deemed a needy and adventurous gambler. - -This seemed only to corroborate what Holcroft had heard before, and -gave him some occasion for thought. - -'I have heard rumours of a family compact--a most fortunate one for -you,' said he, smiling; 'but suppose you--excuse me for saying -so--were to predecease her?' - -'Then my pretty cousin would be a free woman; but I don't mean to die -yet awhile. Let us take a turn before dinner,' he added, to change -the conversation he had no desire to continue. - -'Where?' - -'Anywhere you like; but, as the evening has become chill, suppose we -smoke our cigars in the picture-gallery?' - -'All right, I am your man.' - -Had Allan looked at Hawke Holcroft just then he might have perceived -a lurid gleam in his stealthy eyes, and how his hands were clenched -till the nails of his fingers bruised the palms thereof. - -Olive received her bangle, and though startled by the abruptness with -which it was returned, without message or explanation from Allan, as -Clairette told her, she thought less of the circumstance then than -she did a day or two after. - - -Dinner was announced; Holcroft appeared in accurate evening dress as -usual, and, after waiting a few minutes for Allan who did not appear, -the meal was proceeded with in the slow fashion peculiar to -Dundargue, though only five were seated at table. - -Ere dessert came, Lady Aberfeldie dispatched a servant to Allan's -room in search of him. He was not there, though his evening dress -was laid out as usual. - -'Where can he be? Where can he have gone?' were the queries on all -hands, which, as night began to draw on without his appearing, took -the form of alarm, 'and what can have happened?' - -'Did Allan drop hints of going anywhere?' asked Lord Aberfeldie. - -All answered 'No.' - -'It is most mysterious.' - -Still more mysterious did it appear when the night, passed without -his being seen, and when his place was still vacant at the -breakfast-table next day. Lord Aberfeldie was in dire perplexity; -the ladies were pale and already betook themselves to tears. - -'If Allan has left the house as suddenly as he did before, he has -taken neither clothes nor portmanteau with him, as Tappleton assures -me; so what can it mean?' exclaimed Lord Aberfeldie. - -A gun was missing from the gun-room. Could Allan have gone to shoot -with Logan at Loganlee? But Olive deemed it impossible that he would -do so without consulting her, and on looking at Holcroft she thought -he looked rather hot and disturbed. - -'The bangle, the bangle!' thought the girl, with sudden terror. 'Can -he have gone in a fit of jealousy. Mercy! if it should be so.' - -Inquiries proved that Allan had not passed out by the entrance gates, -as the lodge-keeper affirmed, and no trace of footsteps could be -found at any of the private gates to the grounds; and it was soon -discovered that he had not taken a ticket for any place at the -railway station. - -What terrible mystery was here? - -The family began to look with growing alarm and dismay blankly into -each other's pale faces. - -Keepers and gillies, strong, active, and keen-sighted fellows, -Hector, Alister Bain, Angus and Dugal Glas--even old Ronald Gair, the -piper--searched, but in vain, the grounds, plantations, even the -adjacent hills and glens; but not a trace was found of the missing -Allan. - -He seemed suddenly to have dropped out of existence. - -As this, his last day at Dundargue, drew on, none made himself more -active in searching and riding about the roads than Holcroft, and so -preoccupied were all that no one--even Olive--noticed that his face -was pale and cadaverous--and wore a very disturbed expression, and -that his pale eyes seemed to glare defiantly if anyone looked at him, -while he sedulously kept his _right hand gloved_. - -How are we to relate all that really had happened. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -A MODERN USE FOR A MEDIÆVAL INSTITUTION. - -'The world is not a bad world, after all,' said Allan, as he and -Holcroft, after a casual glance at the long lines of portraits -panelled in the wainscotting of the gallery, together with many a -Cuyp, Zucchero, Canaletti, and so forth, now looked out from one of -the lofty windows upon the fair domain of his family, that spread for -miles around Dundargue. - -'It is easy enough for you to talk thus of the world,' thought -Holcroft, 'but if, like me, you had only debts and difficulties for -your patrimony you might take a different view.' - -'I was born here in Dundargue, and all the happy memories of my -childhood centre round it,' said Allan. 'Every man, woman, and child -in the place are known to me; every rock and hill, glen and woodland, -familiar, with all their stories and traditions; and wherever I might -be with the Black Watch, in England on the staff, far away in central -India, or in the gorges of Afghanistan, my memory always fled home to -dear old Dundargue and all its surroundings.' - -'How pathetic!' sneered Holcroft, silently, and puzzled to understand -the mood of Allan, who, in the consciousness of his own happiness -with Olive, felt at that moment rather inclined to take a soft and -generous view of the world at large. - -'It certainly is a fine old ancestral house--one to be proud of,' -said Holcroft, aloud, 'with a special history, and all that sort of -thing. I have heard a devil of a deal about its oubliette--where is -it?' - -'Let me show you--come this way,' said Allan, lighting a fresh cigar. - -Smoking together, Allan, and Holcroft following, wandered up and down -circular stone stairs in narrow turrets, where the steps had been -worn and hollowed by the feet of long departed generations; through -dusky corridors where, in some places, moth-eaten arras hung upon its -rusty tenter-hooks, and where, as Holcroft said, there was 'a loud -smell of mice;' through secret doors and past 'the priest's hole,' in -which James of Jerusalem abode, till they reached a narrow stone -passage near the summit of the great tower, closed by a massive -little door. - -Allan threw this open, and the black, round mouth of the oubliette, -about four feet in diameter, yawned before them. - -The great, horizontal stone slab or flagstone, which in ancient times -had closed the mouth of this horrible accessory to feudal tyranny, -had long since given place to a massive trap-door of oak, which was -held up by a wooden prop, under which the cold, dark vault showed its -mysterious profundity. - -'By Jove! it is a strange affair; more like a draw-well than anything -else.' - -'But supposed to be twelve feet diameter at the bottom--a fine old -relic of the days when "warriors bold wore spurs of gold," and the -rack and the red-hot ploughshare were aids to the orthodox opinions -of society in religion and politics.' - -And Allan laughed as he spoke. - -'How foetid its atmosphere is! That door has not been open for an -age, and may be closed for as long again. No one ever comes here.' - -Peering downward, as if into a well, they saw the outlines of their -heads reflected in a little pool of water at the bottom, but how far -down it was impossible to say. - -'Once upon a time,' said Allan, 'when parts of the Carse of Gowrie -were under water, in wet seasons especially, it flowed in here, how -no one knew, unless through fissures in the rock, and drowned like a -rat any luckless wight who was thrown in to be--to be----' - -'What?' - -'Forgotten. So the phrase went then; hence its name.' - -'And do you mean to say that no one who was dropped into that -confounded hole ever came up again?' - -'Yes.' - -'Were their cries not heard?' - -'No; the walls around are so thick, and the bottom is in the living -rock on which Dundargue stands.' - -'By Jove!' exclaimed Holcroft again, as if perplexed, so much so that -he had let his cigar grow cold. 'And their bones?' he asked, after a -pause. - -'Were found in quantities by certain explorers, who went down with -torches, some years ago. I have not looked into this place for -years--not since I left for the regiment in India,' said Allan, -stooping, somewhat dangerously--and, to Holcroft's sudden idea, -somewhat temptingly--over the dangerous profundity, into which he was -striving to peer. - -With all the rapidity of light, many terrible thoughts now crowded -into the mind of Holcroft. He hated Allan Graham with deadly rivalry -and hate combined. Never again, in the desperation of his affairs, -might he have the chance of an introduction to such a prize as Olive -Raymond, or be on such a footing, as he had recently found himself -with her. - -He loathed Allan for all Allan possessed, and, as we are told, 'a -coward who knows himself to be at once despised but unchastised, for -a woman's sake, can hate.' - -If he lost his chances with Olive, beggary stared him in the face; -drops of perspiration started to his forehead, and chance now -confirmed his diabolical resolution. The gloomy fiend was uppermost, -his revenge, and perhaps future triumph, stood embodied before him. -He did not pause, and all these dire thoughts occurred to him in less -than the space of one vibration of a pendulum. - -Had the Master of Aberfeldie turned sharply round he might have read -in Holcroft's white face an expression that was not pleasant to look -upon just then--the face of one that would work him mischief if he -could; but the unwitting Allan was doing what he had not done since -boyhood, he was peering with vague curiosity into the profundity -below. - -A fury, a clamorous anxiety, seemed to blaze up in the heart and -brain of Holcroft, who was a practised 'bruiser,' and he suddenly -gave Allan an awful blow under the left ear--a blow hit right out -from the shoulder--that shot him headlong into the vault. - -He vanished from the light; there was a heavy thud far down below, -and then all became still--unnaturally so; but Holcroft could hear -the beating of his own pulses, while the blood seemed to be surging -about his throbbing temples. - -Was he acting in a dream from which he would waken to find himself in -bed? or was all this happening, not to him, but to some one else? -No, there was the bruised right hand, from which the violence of his -blow had torn the skin. - -He had read of dark crimes, of _murders_, but little did he think he -would ever become the participator in such a deed; but opportunity is -always the devil's game. - -For a minute--an eternity it seemed, by the chaos of his mind, the -sudden inversion of all thought--he did not breathe, he scarcely -seemed to live. - -There was a whisper of 'murder' on his lips, and it seemed to have an -echo, that terrible whisper, but whether from the walls, the trees -that waved below them, the blue sky, or the crows that were winging -their way through it, he knew not. He seemed to whisper the awful -word to himself, with quivering lips, again and again, as if he -required an assurance of its truth, and then sought to rouse himself -from his lethargic stupor, quit the scene of his sudden crime, and -seek safety in flight--flight! - -But, then, to quit Dundargue thus would fix suspicion on himself. -Had not Clairette, the French maid, seen him but lately with Allan? -And flight would mar the very object for which he had committed the -crime. - -Should he--could he--at all risks to himself and his fortune, ere it -was too late, strive to undo what he had done; to give an alarm, and -make some excuse or explanation ere life had departed from the -shattered frame of his victim, or leave the latter to his obscure -fate--a grave under his father's roof! - -Cowardice and meanness, hatred, jealousy, and avarice all suggested -the latter. - -He knew not the depth of this strange prison, or how far down beneath -the foundations of lofty Dundargue and into the rock on which it -stands, the sill or floor of the noisome vault might be. - -He listened; not a sound came upward, nor was there any, save the -wild beating of his own heart and the buzzing and singing of blood in -his ears. - -He softly closed the wooden trap-door, let the enormous iron hasp -thereof drop over the rusty staple; he closed the massive external -entrance, and stealthily crept or glided away. - -There seemed a silence all around him now; such a silence as must -have appalled the soul of the first murderer when he 'rose up against -Abel, his brother, and slew him.' - -So the tragedy--the dark crime--was acted as suddenly as it was -weird--suggested by a whisper of the devil! There was nothing very -tragic in the accessories of the scene; but, as an author says, 'Are -not real tragedies, the social tragedies that go on about us in our -every-day life, enacted like comedies, until the last moment, when -the curtain falls, and all is dark?' - -Pale as death in visage (he felt himself to be so), stealthy in step -and eye, he stole away to his own apartment in a modern part of the -mansion. How he reached it he never knew, but mechanically of -course, and he blessed his stars that he reached it unseen. - -He took a long pull at the brandy flask--tore off his collar and -necktie, and cast himself half fainting on his bed, where he lay -panting and gasping heavily. - -Every sound that came to his ear, every step that approached, seemed -to Hawke Holcroft the herald of discovery, and he longed with the -most intense nervous intensity to leave this loathed Dundargue behind -him! - -Was the Master dying there or dead outright? Where he lay no sound -could ever reach the external air. But had not his victim assured -him that no cry could ever come from there--the place was so deep--so -remote? - -Would the next evening, when he was to depart, never come? Then he -had the meals, the family, and their surmises to face! - -He had a haggard and hunted look that evening and all next day, which -Lord Aberfeldie, in the kindness of his heart, amid all his own new -anxiety, attributed to the pressure of his monetary affairs. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -HOLCROFT DEPARTS. - -It was a considerable relief to Holcroft's mind to perceive that this -second abrupt disappearance of Allan excited more surprise than alarm -in his family circle; and in her own thoughts Lady Aberfeldie -secretly connected it with some lovers' quarrel between him and -Olive; it was so like their past relations that some such folly -should intervene. - -The bell for dinner sounded much earlier than usual, as Mr. Holcroft -was to depart for the south that evening, and to see him in the -drawing-room dressed _de rigueur_ in black, with spotless shirt-front -and diamond studs, with tie and collar perfect, his hair brushed with -precision and the ends of his tawny moustache waxed out to sharp -points, who could have imagined him an actor in that scene in the -distant arched passage, or connected him with what was lying at the -bottom of that deep, dark oubliette! - -Holcroft always thought that great games involved serious hazards; -but now this was a hazard beyond all his previous calculations. - -The greatest chance of fortune he had ever seen in his varied life -seemed to be slipping--or to have speedily slipped--away from him, -when Olive Raymond and her cousin suddenly appeared on such amicable -terms; savage emotions of mingled disappointment and revenge filled -his heart, and certainly he had given full swing to them! - -Now, what he had done was over; the rubicon had been passed. He -was--what he dared not name himself: the thought of all that Allan -Graham must endure ere he died (if he was not already dead) was--at -times, but at times only--maddening even to his destroyer; and he -felt that he could not too soon place miles upon miles between -himself and Dundargue; and that, happen what might, he would never -set foot in Dundargue again. - -Seated at that luxurious table with the hospitable father, the -patrician-like mother, the tender sister and brilliant _fiancée_ of -him he had slain, with stately-liveried valets in attendance, while -longing for the conveyance or carriage that was to take him to the -station, he _did_ feel more than once as if he would go mad if it -lasted much longer--this acting--this tension of the heart--but, as -we say, for a time only. He was too near the scene of his awful -crime not to feel his soul shrink with selfish horror and dismay, -which made him nervously twist up, roll, and unroll his _serviette_, -as it is called in Scotland. - -Was it only a few hours since he had heard that terrible _thud_ amid -the darkness and the clash of the oak trap-door? And there were -_his_ family all seated with him--Holcroft--at the same table, all -unconscious of what was lying within a few yards of them, and yet not -considering him the blackest criminal in the world, but a departing -guest to be treated with kindness and courtesy. - -Thank heaven he would be far away from them ere Allan would be found -to be hopelessly gone, and he would see nothing of their growing -misery. - -To drown thought, care, and memory, Holcroft, after the ladies -retired to the drawing-room, imbibed systematically more than usual. -Ere this, Olive had thought his manner excited--strange only. Unused -to see men under the influence of wine, she thought no more of it. -But, as Holcroft took to 'lacing' his clicquot with brandy when -occasion served, that may account for some of the peculiar remarks to -Olive yet to be recorded. - -From an early period Eveline had conceived a shuddering kind of -aversion of Holcroft--an emotion not rare in certain nervous -organisations like hers; nor could she have explained why more -particularly _now_ his presence, though at table as usual, had filled -her with an undefined distrust and dread; yet so it was. - -But in the drawing-room her own thoughts came more than ever back to -her, and these were all of Evan Cameron. - -'He is gone!' she was always whispering to herself; 'too probably for -ever and for ever. We shall never meet again. How dull my world -will seem without Evan, and how old and queer I begin to feel -already!' - -But poor Eveline knew not what a small place the world is--now-a-days -especially. - -'You seem rather out of sorts,' said Lord Aberfeldie, who had been -eyeing 'his old friend's son,' while pushing the decanters towards -him; 'I hope there is nothing wrong with you, especially as this is -your last evening here.' - -'No, nothing very wrong,' stammered Holcroft, scarcely knowing what -to say, but driven to shelter himself under what was his normal -condition; 'it is only--only----' - -'What?' - -'I have had more than one annoying letter,' he said, with a kind of -gasp, and paused. - -'About money--of course?' said Lord Aberfeldie. - -'One was a threat from a tailor,' replied Holcroft, making a terrible -effort to appear facetious, 'who says if I don't pay him he will take -means to make me do so.' - -'And you?' - -'Wrote back that I was delighted to hear he had the means, as this -was more than I had.' - -'Well, my dear fellow, your father was one of my oldest friends; for -his sake can I square it for you?' - -'Oh, Lord Aberfeldie, don't think of that!' - -'What's the total?'' asked the other, opening a davenport. - -'Close on £500,' said Holcroft, with an effort, which certainly was -an emotion, but not gratitude. - -'There, Holcroft--pay me when you can, or choose,' said Lord -Aberfeldie, throwing down his pen, closing the davenport, and handing -a cheque for the sum named to his guest, to stop whose thanks he -plunged at once into the inevitable story of the charge of the Black -Watch along the Kourgané Hill; how he fell wounded; and how, but for -Holcroft's father, 'a squad of infernal Russians,' _et cetera_, and -so forth. - -'Another glass of Moët, and then we shall join the ladies.' - -'Life is a hard game with some of us now,' said Holcroft, as he -pocketed his cheque. 'As some one has written, "Men cannot go -freebooting or looting now, except in business; and it is quite a -question whether a modern _promoter_ is not quite as respectable a -member of society as a riever used to be, in the old days when right -was might." - -'And Dundargue was built,' added Lord Aberfeldie, laughing. - -'I did not say so.' - -'Ah, but you thought it.' - -And now they rose from the table. - -Holcroft was not the better, but rather the worse for his potations. -He had eaten little and drunk much. Thus he looked very pale--almost -ghastly; and a strange fixed grimness replaced occasionally the usual -restlessness of his shifty pale eyes and freckled face. - -Curiously enough he had hovering in his mind a kind of vengeance just -then at Olive. But for her sudden, and, as he thought, capricious -preference for her cousin, and throwing _him_ so completely over, the -deed he had committed would never have been done. - -Eveline had withdrawn to her room, whither her mother had followed -her, bent on worry and expostulation no doubt; Lord Aberfeldie was -required by his steward, and Holcroft found Olive seated alone in a -bay window of the drawing-room, watching the last rays of the sun -fading out behind the Sidlaw Hills. - -'Another hour--even less, Miss Raymond--and my place here will be -vacant,' said he, in a low and unnatural voice, while attempting to -hang over her chair in his old fashion. - -'I got back my bangle, thanks,' said she, a little irrelevantly, but -feeling a necessity for saying something. - -'Have you forgotten all that passed between us before and after you -allowed me to retain it.' - -'I never allowed you to retain it, nor aught of mine, save perhaps a -bud from a bouquet. I have not forgotten that you, apparently, -sought to do me a great honour, Mr. Holcroft; but I scarcely thought, -even then, that you were serious.' - -'Serious! Did you not know that I loved you better than my own life.' - -'I cannot listen to this kind of thing,' said she, rising with -positive hauteur and annoyance in her face and manner; 'you forget -yourself.' - -'When with you I always do--forgive me!' - -'I cannot forgive you for talking to me thus.' - -'You used not to dislike me, I know; and now there is no sacrifice I -would not make to win your love----' - -'Permit me to pass!' exclaimed Olive, but he barred her way, and now -a glow of half-tipsy rage seemed to possess him. - -'Listen, Olive Raymond,' said he, in a low, concentrated and almost -fierce tone; 'I have dared and risked much for you--more than you can -conceive. There has seldom been aught that I have sworn to possess -that has not in time been mine--mine, do you hear! To those who -wait, their time and turn always come. I have sworn to possess you, -and woe to the man who comes between us.' - -She regarded him with a haughty and scared yet scornful eye. She saw -now that this melo-drama was the result of wine. - -'Do you think you could compel me to love you?' she asked, with a -provoking smile. - -'No.' - -'What then?' - -'To marry me.' - -'Under what pressure, sir?' - -'That is my secret---in time you may find it out,' he added, bowing -to her with ominous, not mock, politeness, as she passed him with a -haughty stare, and left the room. 'She forgets that I have yet her -photo, with her own name written on the back in her own hand; and if -ever man put the screw on a woman by such a little thing as that, I -shall put it on you, Olive Raymond, if you continue to play my Lady -Disdain to me!' - -And for a moment he cast after her retiring figure a glance of -sardonic hate a devil might have emulated. - -'Good-bye,' he muttered, mockingly, 'is an unpleasant thing to say; -with us let it be _au revoir_ rather; perhaps she may yet wave a damp -pocket-handkerchief from the outward wall as I ride away; who knows.' - -'Sorry to say time is up, my dear fellow,' said Lord Aberfeldie, -entering the room with his hat and driving gloves; 'make your adieux -to the ladies. There is little doubt that Allan has gone to -Loganlee--the covers are first-rate there. I'll just drive over and -see, dropping you and your traps at the railway station _en passant_.' - -A few minutes more and the pair were tooling down the avenue in a -smart mail phaeton, drawn by a pair of fine, high-stepping dark -greys. So Lord Aberfeldie drove 'the son of his oldest friend' to -the station, and, as the distance increased between himself and -Dundargue, Holcroft's spirits revived, as if nothing had happened -there at all; he actually said, - -'And you think to find Allan at Loganlee?' - -'I haven't a doubt of it--some tift with Olive, no doubt.' - -'_Au revoir_, Lord Aberfeldie! and a thousand thanks for all your -kindness to me--never shall forget it, by Jove! but I shall have the -pleasure of seeing you all again in town, of course.' - -To this expression of pleasure Lord Aberfeldie made no response, but -shook Holcroft's hand, whipped up his greys, and was off, thinking, - -'I am glad _he_ has gone; he looks sadly strange and queer, poor -fellow.' - -Holcroft was intensely relieved when the peer had left, and, making -straight for the railway buffet, imbibed glass after glass of pretty -potent Glenlivat, conversing affably the while with the young damsel -thereat. - -'Of what are you thinking, sir, that you stare at me so?' she asked, -with a giggle. - -'Only that your mother must have been a sweetly pretty girl!' - -The train was late; thus he had to spend some time in staring -aimlessly at the flaming advertisements on the station wall--an -Anglo-American fashion now spread to Scotland--advertisements of some -one's cocoa, some one's corsets, some one's whisky, and so forth; -and, after glancing with a contemptuous malediction at the thick -bible left by the Scottish something society in the little -waiting-room, he smoked a cigar, had himself weighed, had a brandy -and soda, had some more chaff with the pretty girl at the buffet, -till the night train came snorting and clanking in, when he took his -seat, spread his rugs, and was off, as he thought, to security at -last! - -Though he was not without reasonable and selfish dread for the -future, as the night train sped on its swift way, and left the Carse -of Gowrie far behind, he felt no genuine compunction for the atrocity -he had committed. - -He did not possess a single spark of honour, gratitude, compunction, -or compassion. By unfair play he had rooked many; he had hocussed -horses; and once ruined a poor lad in the Lancers, on whom he -contrived to cast the suspicion of his own act. The Lancer was -dismissed the service by sentence of a court-martial, and shot -himself next day; and Hawke Holcroft took his luxurious luncheon -quietly in the same inn where the inquest was held, at the same time. -He had extorted money in many ways--he had never precisely robbed; -but never before had he been in the dark abyss of assassination and -death till now! - -The annals of our courts of justice contain many a terrible tale of -guilt; but, says a novelist with truth, these would appear like -nothing with the history of undiscovered and unpunished crime. 'The -assassin who accomplishes his terrible purpose so craftily as to -escape detection is a cool and calculating fiend, by the side of -whose supreme villainy, the half-premeditated crime of the ordinary -shedder of blood, is dwarfed into insignificance.' - -So on and on sped the swift night train, and there seemed every -probability that the deed of Holcroft would be one of the crimes -referred to, that are neither discovered nor punished. - -He gave a last look into his pocket-book to assure himself that the -cheque and the photo of Olive were safe, and then tried to compose -himself to sleep. - -Let us hope that the attempt was vain! - -He could not help pondering over the remark of Allan about how foetid -the air of the oubliette was--that the door had not been opened for -an age, and no one ever thought of going near it. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -SUSPENSE. - -Lord Aberfeldie drove home in some alarm and dismay. Allan was not -at Loganlee, nor had he been near it! When Ruby, the amber-haired -little beauty, heard of his visit and its object, she was not slow to -connect Allan's second disappearance with some lover's quarrel -between him and Olive, and to gather certain jealous and pleasant -hopes therefrom, for Allan was decidedly 'a weakness' of Ruby's. - -Uncertainty and suspense were increasing now in all their minute -horror at Dundargue; while surmises proved endless, futile, and -unavailing. - -He was gone--but where, or how, and why? - -'Something has happened--something fatal--to my son!' wailed Lady -Aberfeldie. 'Give me back those fatal diamonds, Eveline. They are -never worn, that sorrow does not come to Dundargue!' - -'Take courage, my lady,' said old Tappleton, the butler; 'ill news -aye travels fast enough, and if ought was wrang wi' the Master, we -should hae heard o't ere now.' - -Evan Cameron, now with his regiment, and the legal agents of the -family at Edinburgh, were alike perplexed on the receipt of letters -from Lord Aberfeldie inquiring anxiously if they knew anything of the -movements of Allan, and both telegraphed back that they could give no -information on the subject. - -With these telegrams the last hope passed away, and when the third -day of his disappearance began to close a kind of horror seemed to -settle over the household, and again a general, and, of course, -unavailing, search was made through the entire neighbourhood. - -On the face of the servants, male and female, there was never a smile -now, as they all loved Allan well; it was no assumed expression they -wore; but they went about their daily work with a hushed and subdued -air as if there was death in the house, and they fully felt the -weight of the mystery. - -And ever at table stood the vacant chair, while covers were laid as -usual for the absent one. - -An accident must have happened; but of what nature? Lord Aberfeldie -was beginning to think grimly, vaguely, and painfully of the future. -If aught fatal had happened to Allan--his only son--an idea from -which his soul shrunk--his cherished title and the grand old house of -Dundargue would pass to a remote cousin, one who, by long residence -in England, by inter-marriage there, by training, breeding, and habit -of thought, cared no more for Scotland and her interests, or for the -traditions of the Grahams of Aberfeldie, than for those of Timbuctoo. - -Such ideas and fears had occurred to him once before, he could -remember, when Allan's name appeared among the list of severely -wounded in that episode of the Afghan affair, which won him the -Victoria Cross. - -To Lady Aberfeldie, such ideas, if they occurred at all, were minor -indeed to the memories of Allan as the babe she had nursed in her -bosom, and the curly-haired boy who had prattled at her knee; and on -whom, in manhood and his prime, she had gazed with such maternal -pride and admiration when she saw him with the tartan and plumed -bonnet, in all the bravery of the Black Watch. - -As for poor Olive and Eveline they could only weep together from time -to time in all the girlish abandonment of woe. - -So hour by hour the silent time stole on at Dundargue. - -Till now Olive had never known how deeply and truly she loved Allan, -of the hold his image had upon her heart; and how she had repented -the pain her petulance must have cost him. - -Her eyes in the morning light looked weary, and yet there was an -unnatural sparkle in that weariness; her rich brown hair, to the -dismay of Mademoiselle Clairette, was left almost undressed, and was -pushed back from her throbbing temples; her lips, though scarlet -still, looked hard, dry, and cracked, while the whole expression of -her face seemed changed. - -What was to be the clue, if ever there would be one, to this dreadful -mystery! - - -Meanwhile it might be inquired by the reader whether Mr. Hawke -Holcroft was troubled by his conscience. He certainly never betrayed -any outward signs thereof--though conscience has been described as -making cowards of us all--but he was not without certain reasonable -and wholesome fears of discovery and connection of the crime with -himself. - -He was far away from Dundargue and all its influences. In fact, it -seemed a kind of dream to him the circumstance of ever having been -there at all; and as weeks passed on nothing could exceed his -perplexity and astonishment, though located in an obscure corner of -London to avoid his creditors and, _pro tem._, everyone else, to hear -nothing of the affair at Dundargue or of the Master being missing. - -Sedulously he searched the daily prints, sedulously he watched the -sensational portions of the evening third and fourth editions, but -the matter was never referred to. No advertisements appeared -offering rewards; no detectives, or the usual machinery seemed to -have been put in motion. What could it all mean--this silence and -mystery? - -Everything however trivial finds its way into print now, and the son -of a peer--and an officer in Her Majesty's service, too--does not -vanish every day! - -At last he got a shock, when a poster proclaimed in large capitals -'_The mysterious outrage at Dun--_' but his sight failed him for a -moment, and when again he looked he perceived that it was not -Dundargue, but 'Dunecht,' that was mentioned with reference to the -affair of a past time. - -But in all this we are somewhat anticipating. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE OUBLIETTE. - -In these unromantic, plodding, prosaic days of railways, telegraphs, -and telephones who would imagine that the fine old family mansion of -Dundargue would be the scene of a crime--of a tragedy--suited only to -the days of the Sir Malise Graham of the fourteenth century? - -Yet so it was. - -Allan was not killed--he was perhaps one of those fellows who are not -easily killed--but he was severely injured by the fall and -concussion, and it was long before he began to struggle back into a -consciousness of existence, as he had fallen partly on his head and -left shoulder. - -The former had suffered from that circumstance, and from the dreadful -blow dealt him by Hawke Holcroft; and he was not slow in discovering -that his left arm was useless--broken above the elbow. - -'Thank heaven, it is not my sword arm!' he whispered, huskily, as he -strove to stagger up; but only to sink helplessly down again on the -cold stone floor of his prison. - -He was too weak--too confused to feel either just rage or indignation -yet. There was a horrible dream-like sense of utter unreality in the -whole situation in which he so suddenly found himself, and some time -elapsed before the whole episode with Holcroft--his unfortunate offer -to show him this fatal place, the situation and character of which -had suddenly suggested the crime--their idling in the -picture-gallery, smoking and wandering through corridors, up and down -ancient stairs, with eventually a sudden recollection of the whole -adventure--surged into his brain, and a gasp of rage escaped him. - -'Accursed coward and villain!' muttered Allan, looking upward; but -all was darkness there and around him. - -The hours stole on. He staggered up, and at last began to explore -the place in which he found himself--a somewhat needless act, as he -knew it but too well, having many a time, when a boy, with fear, awe, -and curiosity, lowered down a candle at the end of a string, and seen -it swaying to and fro far down below till the damp vapour -extinguished the flame. - -Yet he felt with his right hand the circular wall of massive masonry -which enclosed him, carefully again and again, in the desperate hope -of finding some outlet, though he knew well by the history and -traditions of the place that no such thing could ever have existed; -but he could not remain still or withstand the nervous desire for -exertion--to be up and doing something; till again he sank on the -floor in utter weariness of heart, albeit that heart was aflame with -rage. - -He uttered shouts for help from time to time, till his voice became -hoarse and began to fail him, and his spirit too, as he knew the -enormous thickness of the old walls around him; and tears of rage -almost escaped him as he pondered over the cold and calculating -villainy, of which he was now so mysteriously the helpless victim. - -He had no doubt that the hours of the night were now stealing on, and -that long ere this his absence must have been discovered, and -speculation would be rife. He had his watch, but he was in utter and -blackest darkness, and his box of cigar lights having dropped from -his pocket he had no means of consulting the dial. - -He could but lie there in great pain and passive misery--a misery -that seemed so unnatural that it was like a nightmare, an unreality, -that must pass away as suddenly as it had come upon him. - -How terrible and indescribable, however, grew his aching thoughts as -the weary time went on! - -He might die of cold, of hunger, of agony--die within a few yards of -his own hearthstone--die thus under his father's roof, and close by -where at that very moment the whole family were a prey to -bewilderment and distress by his sudden disappearance! - -Oh, it was all too maddening to think of. So there he could but lie, -buried, immured, entombed in darkness; chill as death, not a breath -of pure air in his nostrils; not the faintest glimmer of light, and -no human sound in his ears. As the hours crept on he could scarcely -distinguish waking from sleeping, a dream from reality; and at times -all seemed to become chaos, and he could think of nothing unless it -were a buzzing in his head and the acute agony of his broken arm. - -Anon he would utter a feeble shout for 'help,' but his own voice -seemed to return to him; beyond the walls that enclosed him it would -not go. He knew that there are situations in life incident to misery -and painful excitement, when the human machinery by the rapidity of -mental action is worn out sooner than its alloted time, and he began -to consider how long it was possible to exist without food or water. - -Wearily, agonisingly the hours dragged on. - -By this time he was certain that night had passed and day had come -again; and what must the thoughts of his people be? Inquiries and -searches would be made he knew, but who would ever dream of searching -for him where he was _then_. - -He had not yet begun to suffer from hunger, but he had a considerable -thirst, and hunger would come too. - -He thought of all he had read of the endurance of men on rafts and in -open boats at sea; of entombed miners buried deep in the bowels of -the earth, and his hair seemed to bristle up at the recollections. -Hunger, thirst, and an unknown death--or death at such craven hands. - -'Oh, God,' he moaned, 'will aid never--never come?' - -In that gruesome place and time there occurred to him--ghastly -memory!--thoughts of the unknown and forgotten dead whose matted -bones had been found in it by antiquarian explorers, as he had -mentioned to Holcroft--the remains of unfortunate creatures flung in -there by his forefathers. - -Could it be that this unlooked-for fate of his was to be a species of -expiation for them? And was he to die now by this death, when life -had become to him so much dearer than ever? - -If his disappearance remained utterly unaccounted for, and his death -became--as of course it would be--a thing of the past, and forgotten -even by those to whom he was dear, might not Hawke Holcroft regain -such influence as he had ever possessed over Olive and make her his -own? She would be free then; there would be no obstacle, and no -other rendering of the will necessary, now that _he_ was removed. - -Never again to see her face or the faces of those he loved and who -loved him so; to die a rat's death, within arm's length of them -almost! Could his ancestor have foreseen, when he formed this -infernal trap, that one of his own race was to perish therein, and -thus! - -After a time, amid all this tangle of terrible thoughts, he began to -forget where he was; his senses partly left him; he believed himself -to be with the regiment--the Black Watch, with their dark tartans and -historic crimson plumes; he heard the crash of the drums, the braying -of the pipes, and saw many familiar faces around him, those of -Cameron and Carslogie among others. Now the regiment was going into -action; he saw the line forming, the eyes of the men lighting grimly -up as they loaded, and the sunshine flashed upon the ridges of -levelled steel. The dream seemed a palpable one, and, with a shout -louder than he thought he could utter, he called upon them to follow -him in the charge! - -His own cry awoke or roused him; the glorious vision of the charging -line melted into opaque darkness, and now Allan found himself weaker -than ever. He thought all was nearly over with him now. He turned -his thoughts to prayer, ere it might be too late, and from pondering -on release and vengeance and the things of this life, he began to -think, as his powers ebbed, of the life to come. - -He felt that he must resign himself to the inevitable, and to die--to -die there after all, and at last he became totally insensible. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -CEAD MILLE MALOCH! - -The shout uttered by Allan in his delirium had not been uttered in -vain. - -It chanced that Mr. Tappleton, the silver-haired old butler, who had -been custodier of the wine binns and the massive old plate in its -iron-bound chest, since the present Lord Aberfeldie was a baby in -long clothes, had entered his dusty and cobwebbed repositories, and -was seeking through their stone shelves for some fine old crusted -port of a peculiar vintage, kept alone for the use of his master and -himself, when the cry of Allan and some other strange sounds reached -his ears, as he thought, and seriously startled him. - -We say he thought, for the recess of his wine binns was an unlikely -place to hear any other sound than that made by a scared rat. - -It was now the dead, dull silence of midnight, when the sounds that -are unknown amid the buzz of mid-day life are heard, and seem so -oddly, so preternaturally loud and strange--a crack in a door panel -or wainscot, the tap of a moth against the window-panes, distant -noises that come we know not how or from what on the still damp air. - -In a country house at night there is usually a solemn stillness that -is painful and oppressive to the wakeful; and it was amidst this -silence, the cry--for a human cry it was--reached the butler's -startled ear. - -But whence had it come? Out of the stone wall, or from the ground -beneath, or from the throat of a raven in one of the great chimneys -of the old house? - -'Impossible!' thought Tappleton; 'it was the voice of a man--or a -ghost.' - -At the latter idea he closed the wine-binn door, and retired with -precipitation to his cosy room, and thought the matter over as he -stirred and sipped his hot whisky toddy, but feeling ever and anon -that wild throbbing of the heart, and 'that electric chill and rising -of the hair which accompanies supernatural panic.' - -The old man had a most uncomfortable feeling about the voice he had -heard, and its strangely muffled sound seemed to come in fancy to his -ear again and again; and now he, not unnaturally, began to associate -it with the mysterious disappearance of Allan, the Master. - -With earliest dawn he betook himself to his wine cellar again, and -felt that he was a bolder man in daylight than in the gloom of -midnight; but 'most men are,' says Charles Dickens; yet when an -unmistakable moan or two reached his ears, his fear of the -supernatural so nearly gained the ascendancy that he was about to -take to flight again. - -However he paused, while his old heart beat painfully, and began to -think of what adjoined his cellars, and at once there flashed upon -his memory the locality of the horrible old vault; for the butler -knew all the 'outs and ins' of Dundargue as well as if he had built -it. - -In the course of modern alterations and repairs a portion of the -originally enormous wall of the vault had been thinned and cut away. -There were crannies in the masonry, and it was through these the -voice of the imprisoned had reached the butler during his casual -visit to his cellar. - -'Some one is there. Good Heavens! if it should be the Master--the -Master after a'!' exclaimed Tappleton; and, quick as his old legs -could carry him, he rushed up stairs, through the picture-gallery, -along the arched corridor, and reached at last the oak trap-door; but -when he saw it, with its great iron hasp over the rusted staple, hope -died away, and his soul sank within him. - -Loth to linger in a place where, as we have stated, superstition -believed that those who did so, had a creeping sense of having near -them shadowy forms and intangible presences, he was on the point of -turning away, when, controlling his silly fears, he thought he might -as well pursue his investigations further. - -He raised the trap-door, and almost immediately a voice ascended to -his ear from the darkness below. He peered down, but could see -nothing. - -'Wha is there--wha spoke?' asked the butler. - -'I--I, the Master,' replied the weak voice of Allan Graham. - -'You, sir--heaven be gude tae us! You sir! hoo in God's name cam' ye -to be doon there?' cried Tappleton, in mingled joy, horror, and great -perplexity. - -'Summon help--there's a good old fellow; get me out, and then you -will know all--quick, Tappleton, or--or I shall not last much -longer,' replied Allan, faintly, and at intervals, in a voice so low -that his last words seemed to die away, while Tappleton rushed off as -fast as his years would permit, to seek Lord Aberfeldie and alarm the -whole household, which he did very effectually by a sudden and -furious application to the great house-bell, causing a very general -idea of fire, and bringing all from their rooms in various kinds of -_déshabille_ at that early hour of the morning. - -'The Master's found--the Master's found!' he kept shouting on every -hand. - -'Where--where?' asked twenty voices. - -'Ay, ye may weel ask _whar_,' was the tantalizing response. - -In the breast of Lord Aberfeldie and all his household incredulity at -first, and then profound astonishment, reigned for a time on the -butler making himself understood, and all hastened to the scene of -his discovery. - -'The Master--the Master down there,' muttered the servants, looking -inquiringly in each other's faces. 'How came such a thing to pass?' - -They jostled and impeded each other; but Lord Aberfeldie's authority -and soldier-like promptitude soon defined a line of action. - -'Lights--lights and ropes; look alive, men!' he exclaimed. - -These requisites were soon brought. - -'Lower away--take courage--we'll soon have you out,' exclaimed his -father. 'Tie the ropes tightly round you.' - -Allan, in a faint voice, made them aware that this was impossible, as -his left arm was broken, tidings which added commiseration and grief -to the blank amazement of Olive, Eveline, and his mother. - -'Who will go down?' asked Lord Aberfeldie, looking around him. - -'I--and I--and I!' - -Every man in the house was ready to descend, but Angus Glas, the -active young deerstalker, slid down the rope with a lanthorn in his -hand, followed by the prayer of Olive, who would not be kept back, -her eyes wild, her now pale lips apart, her sweet face blanched, and -a strange stiffness in all her usually lithe limbs. - -Pale as death, his face plastered with dried blood--blood that had -flowed from a contusion in his head--livid and helpless, his left arm -hanging limp as an empty sleeve by his side, his eyes half closed, as -if unable to endure the glare of the day after being so long in the -dark, Allan was brought up, and, on beholding him, the exclamations -of commiseration and astonishment redoubled; and yet it could be seen -that he was almost past questioning, and mounted grooms were -instantly despatched to summon all the medical aid of the district. - -Had the butler's nocturnal visit to his binns been twenty-four hours -later, Allan Graham must have perished, and his fate might never have -been known in his own generation perhaps. - -The whole catastrophe seemed so strange, unintelligible, unnatural, -and harrowing that the nerves of Lady Aberfeldie were terribly shaken -by it; so were those of her daughter and Olive, and each needed all -the comfort and support the other could give. - -Some wine, which he drank thirstily, first revived the patient after -he was conveyed to his room. - -'How in the name of heaven, Allan, came you to fall into that place?' -asked his father. - -'I did not fall in,' replied Allan, in a species of husky whisper. - -'How then?' - -'Holcroft!' was all Allan could utter, when the room seemed to swim -round him and he became insensible. - -Lord Aberfeldie knew not precisely what to make of the reply, but -suspicion gave him a certain clue to what he thought had happened, -and the same idea seemed to occur to young Angus, the gillie, who was -assisting to undress his master and put him to bed, for his eyes -gleamed under their shaggy brows, and he could only mutter from time -to time, - -'_Cead mille maloch!_' - -A malediction in which Lord Aberfeldie heartily concurred. - -When ultimately the Peer learned all that had transpired, the -incident of the cheque he had so innocently and generously given -Holcroft was completely forgotten. He felt only rage, mingled with -utter stupefaction, that a man could act so basely as his recent -guest had done. It was altogether out of his calculation and -experience of human life in every way. - -'But what is to be done now--to search out and punish this malignant -scoundrel?' he exclaimed; while Lady Aberfeldie, all her motherly -feelings outraged, was for raising fire and sword, and letting loose -all the terrors of the law on Holcroft's head. - -Lord Aberfeldie, however, after a time thought differently. He had a -horror of publicity, of newspaper gossip and scandals, of making his -honoured and ancestral home and the affairs of his family a _point -d'appui_, as he said, for such things--a world's wonder, even for a -time; and thus he declined to attempt to punish Holcroft for an -outrage none had seen him commit. - -He would leave that to the course of events, and to Time, the avenger. - -More than all, the name of Olive Raymond might crop up in the -unseemly matter. - -'His father was a brave, good fellow, and my dearest friend!' said -Lord Aberfeldie sadly; 'how comes his son to be such an utter -villain? He has drawn his evil tendencies from some past generation; -it is said that such a kind of poison is at times transmitted in the -blood, and that no human being can truly value the resistance of sin -or folly.' - -But Lady Aberfeldie was stormy, and declined to be pacified. - -'We have the future to think of,' said her husband again; 'evil -tongues to guard against for the sake of Olive, our whole family, and -my old comrade the General, who is now in his grave--the father of -that foul ingrate.' - -Thus it was that no mention of the affair was made by the daily -prints, to the surprise, certainly, and perhaps the relief, of -Holcroft's mind. - -'Say no more on this subject, Eveline,' said Lord Aberfeldie, as he -sought to soothe his wife. 'Gladly would I forget that we had ever -sheltered at Dundargue a guest so degrading in character; gladly -would I forget as soon as possible--if it be possible--the hours of -intense suffering we have undergone, more than all that Allan must -have undergone in that horrible place, and yet under his own roof!' - -Many a silent and reproachful tear Olive shed in secret, as she knew, -in the recent past time, how much her pride, petulance, and suspicion -had done to further jealousy and resentment in the mind of Holcroft -against her cousin; and she felt that too probably she had caused all -this. - -But Holcroft was a bankrupt and a blackleg now, and never more, at -London or anywhere else, she thought, could he cross _her_ path -again. Till now she never believed that the world could contain a -man so utterly unprincipled, so thoroughly base! - -The household servants supposed that the Master had fallen into that -gruesome vault by accident, and they were allowed to adopt the idea. - -'But who closed the trap and dropped the hasp over the staple?' -thought old Tappleton; yet eventually he allowed himself to be talked -into the idea that he had made a mistake in that matter. - -Allan lay long ill and delirious after all he had undergone; but when -it was announced that he was past danger, great was the rejoicing of -all the servants and the household at Dundargue, for all loved the -Master well, and were faithfully attached to the family by ties of -residence and clanship, even in this Victorian age. 'The devoted -loyalty of the clansmen to their chiefs existed undiminished for -generations after the system of clan government was abolished in -1746,' said the _Standard_ newspaper recently; 'and it would be -wholly erroneous to contend, _even now_, that the peculiar affection -between the people and their chief, altogether different in nature -and degree from any relationship known in a Saxon community, has died -away.' - -But the family of Aberfeldie had not seen the last of Mr. Hawke -Holcroft. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -LOVERS. - -The early days of the spring subsequent to the events we have -narrated, found the Aberfeldie family located at Maviswood, a -handsome modern villa to the west of Edinburgh, whither they had -removed from Dundargue, that Allan, on whom a kind of protracted -illness had fallen, might avail himself of the great medical skill -which is always to be found in the Scottish Metropolis. - -By what means Allan was discovered and got out of the vault into -which he had been flung, and, as Hawke Holcroft hoped, was entombed -for ever, the latter never knew, from the plan adopted by the family, -but the public prints had informed him more than once, that 'the -Master of Aberfeldie had met with an accident--a fall--from the -effects of which he was slowly recovering; wounds received when on -service with the Black Watch retarding his progress to health.' - -Evan Cameron, Carslogie, and others of the regiment, then in the -Castle of Edinburgh, heard of Allan's affair or illness in a vague -way, as Lord Aberfeldie shrunk from all gossip, publicity and -surmise; and the first-named learned that Eveline's marriage had been -delayed in consequence of that illness, chiefly through a letter -written to him by Olive, at Allan's request. - -So the early days of spring were passing on, and no particular change -had taken place in the relative positions of our characters since we -last saw them at Dundargue. - -Eveline was alone one afternoon in a room at Maviswood--a room of -vast proportions. The ceiling was divided into deep panels of oak -colour; a dado of dead gold tint was carried round the walls to -within eight feet of the cornice, and the chairs and ottomans were -upholstered in blue maroquin leather, studded with elaborate gilt -nails. The hangings were blue, with yellow borders, lining and -tassels; great china bowls, full of conservatory flowers, stood on -ornate tables and pedestals, within the recess of a great triple bay -window, beyond which spread away southward the lovely landscape that -is bounded by the Pentlands. - -Spring is a lovely and joyous season everywhere, but nowhere is it -lovelier than in the fertile Lothians; and nowhere may the eye rest -upon a more varied and beautiful landscape than that which spreads -from the southern slope of Corstorphine's wooded crags to the base of -the green and undulating Pentlands, the highest summits of which -range from sixteen hundred to nearly nineteen hundred feet. - -There are corn-fields teeming with fertility, rows of stately trees, -pretty cottages, stately white manor houses, and cosy farms embosomed -among old woods and orchards; the picturesque rocks of wooded -Craiglockhart, wherein the kites and kestrels build their nests; the -rich alluvial land, where for ages a great loch once spread its -waters; the quaint old village church, on the spire of which the red -sunset loves to linger; and westward the Queen of the North, in all -the glory of castled rock, and hill and crag, spire, tower, and -countless terraces; and on all of these the wistful eyes of Eveline -Grahame were wandering dreamily. - -A golden glory was cast along the eastern slopes, the fleecy clouds -were every moment assuming new forms and lovelier colours; the woods -were budding forth; the Leith and its tiny tributaries were brawling -along as if their waters had no time to toy with the brown pebbles. -Seated, at times, sideways on their horses, the happy ploughboys were -already going home from their labours. The early-yeaned lambs were -frisking about the ewes, and cloud and sunshine seemed to chase each -other over the tender grass, where the wild white gowan was opening -its petals, and old folks were remembering that 'a peck o' March dust -was worth the ransom o' a king.' - -Of late, Eveline's bursts of girlish merriment had been few and far -between. She was fretful--unusually so for a girl who by nature was -so sweet and gentle, and at the mere mention of the name of Sir -Paget--to whom she felt herself doomed, as it were, or allotted--she -became more fretful, silent, and abstracted. - -She shrank from smiling people, turned her back upon inquisitive -ones, and often was found to answer briefly and beside the point. - -In short, the pretty Eveline's heart or mind was quite unhinged. - -The tenth day of her residence at Maviswood was creeping slowly on, -and she was pondering, full of thought, alone in that stately room, -when a servant startled her by announcing and ushering in 'Mr. Evan -Cameron,' and, though her mind was full of him--of the evening of the -carpet-dance at Dundargue, and the hour of joy in the half-lit -corridor, a kind of gasp escaped her as she rose from her seat to -receive him. - -But why should he not call, reason suggested to her. - -The Grahams had been for ten days, we have said, at Maviswood; and -Cameron, who had been counting every hour of those ten days, and -watching the villa with his field-glass from his quarters in the -distant castle, had now ventured to make an afternoon walk, and -found, beyond his hopes, that Eveline was alone. - -Allan and Olive were out together in a pony-phaeton; Lord and Lady -Aberfeldie were he cared not where; anyway, they were absent too. - -Olive, feeling that she was in some way responsible, by her past -thoughtlessness, petulance, and flirting with the daring and unworthy -Holcroft, for much that had befallen Allan, now 'waited on him hand -and foot,' as the old nurse Nannie phrased it. She was with him from -hour to hour, and, though their marriage was delayed, how happy they -seemed to be! - -Fearing interruption as before, Cameron, too tender and true not to -be a timid lover, found a difficulty just then in taking up the -thread of the old story, and they stood in the bay-window talking -commonplaces, while heart was speaking to heart and eye to eye. But -'what is speaking or hearing when heart wells into heart?' - -Cameron heard all she chose then to tell him about Allan's -'accident,' the bewilderment and alarm of the family, and so forth. -Many friends were spoken of, but Sir Paget was of course referred to -by neither. - -Eveline, though so young, had the frank and perfect air of repose in -her manner that came of gentle breeding, and made her seem older than -she was, but gave an assurance that whatever she said, or whatever -she did, was said and done in the right way. Without coquetry, her -manner was full of simple fascination; but it was undeniably nervous -now, for she read by Cameron's softened voice, and in his brightening -eye, the clear necessity for something else than common-place talk, -when he discovered by a casual remark that Lord and Lady Aberfeldie -were not in the house. - -Eveline felt that she had given herself to Evan, and that the tenor -of their interview in the corridor amounted tacitly to an engagement. - -An engagement! But to what end? It all seemed but a dream, a -delicious dream, of which there was nothing to remind her, not even a -ring, a lock of hair, or the tiniest note. - -Unlike Cameron, Eveline, while loving him dearly, had, singular to -say, no thought of marriage with him in the ordinary sense of the -word; for, hemmed round as she was, and destined as she was, the idea -was a hopeless one, judged from her parents' point of view. She only -felt, poor girl, that she loved, and was full of sad joy--if we may -use the paradox--in the belief that she was truly loved in return. - -'How silent you have become,' she said, in a low tone, after a -nervous pause. - -'I know not what to say; but love has no need of words, Eveline, nor -needs he many at any time,' he replied, drawing closer to her. Then -he took a conservatory rose from a vase and exclaimed, 'Eveline -darling, you love me well and truly, don't you?' - -'Well and truly, you know, dear Evan,' she replied, as his arm went -round her, and her head dropped on his shoulder. 'What need to ask -me?' she whispered, in a breathless voice. - -'Because I cannot hear the beloved assurance too often.' He kissed -her tenderly, we cannot say how many times, nor would it matter, -while she lay passive in his arms, and then he said, 'Shall we try -our fate with this rose?' - -'How?' - -'By plucking it, leaf by leaf, saying each time "Lucky, Unlucky," -till the last leaf comes.' - -'Something _à la Marguerite_.' - -'Yes.' - -'No, decidedly no, dearest Evan.' - -'You are superstitious. Well, so am I.' - -'Thus an omen would only torment us, and surely we have -enough--enough----' Tears choked her voice, and she could only add, -'Trust, dearest Evan, trust.' - -'In what, my darling?' - -'The great goodness of God.' - -The spell of a great love was on both. Their lips met in a long and -silent kiss, and the rose fell at their feet between them. - -A sound roused them--nay, startled them. They had only time to -separate and affect a sudden interest in the artistic effects -produced by light and shadow on the landscape, when Lord and Lady -Aberfeldie entered the room together, a pretty palpable cloud of -annoyance resting on the brows of both as they politely, but far from -warmly, greeted the visitor. - -The peer, who had evidently been out riding, appeared in a black -morning coat and white cords, whip in hand, and the lady, who had -been in the grounds, wore her garden hat and shawl. She had seen a -visitor ride up to the door from a distant part of the lawn, and had -hurried home, her heart foreboding truly who that visitor was. - -And now, while their hearts were vibrating with tenderness, and with -their lips yet tremulously sensible of the sweetness of kisses--the -first kisses of a new and early love--they had to talk enforced -commonplace--or, at least, Evan did so, while Eveline remained -silent--of the news of the day, the expected plans of the ministry, -the probable despatch of a fleet to Egyptian waters, of the chances -of an army following it, of Arabi Pasha and the Khedive, the plot -formed by the Circassian officers, and so forth, till it was time for -the lingering Cameron to resume his hat and depart at last. - -Cameron tried to ignore that which, under other and more prosperous -circumstances, would have galled and roused his haughty Highland -spirit--Lord Aberfeldie's coldness of manner when he spoke even of -the regiment, and how certainly it would go to the East, 'as the -Black Watch, thank God, was always in everything, and always with -honour,' while Evan's eyes irresistibly wandered to the face of -Eveline, and memory went back to the twilighted corridor at Dundargue. - -But so did the memory of my Lord Aberfeldie. - -The peer must have undergone a good deal of training or "drilling" -lately at the hands of Lady Aberfeldie before he could have brought -himself to behave so coldly to one he really liked so well as young -Stratherroch, and one of the Black Watch especially; but then, -perhaps, he was just a little soured by the sequel to the hospitality -and kindness accorded to "the son of his old friend," which son had -contrived by skilful lettering and figuring to add the sum of eighty -pounds to his cheque. - -As he bade them adieu Stratherroch observed that Lord Aberfeldie did -not ask him to call again at Maviswood, and keenly did he feel the -omission and all it implied, and with it came the conviction that he -must call no more! - -Slowly he rode back to his quarters full of alternately exultant and -bitter thoughts--exultant that Eveline loved him and would never -cease to love him, but bitter ones as he asked himself, to what end! - -If poor Cameron had vague and lingering hopes to which he clung (and -doubtless he had)--hopes when seeing Eveline, of proposing or hinting -of meeting elsewhere in the future--they were doomed to blight, for -no such bore fruition; and they had now parted, and her father and -mother thought they should part, as mere friends, who might meet -casually in society, but at all events had better _not_ meet again. - -And Cameron feared that, so far as monetary matters stood with him, -his friend Allan might endorse the same view of the situation. - -'Stratherroch is a gentleman by birth and position, but poor, -miserably poor,' said Lady Aberfeldie, after he had gone; 'so was -that precious Mr. Holcroft, and when a declension takes place in -tone, manner, and habits, as in his instance, we never know where it -may end,' she added pointedly to Eveline. - -'How can you speak of the two men in the same sentence!' exclaimed -the peer, with an asperity for which his daughter thanked him in her -aching heart. - -At anytime when Eveline looked south-eastward from Maviswood she -could see the Castle of Edinburgh, and the towering mass of the -western barrack, with all its windows shining in the sun, and she -always did so with tenderest interest, as she knew that _he_ was -there; but, natheless, her experience of at least one London season, -there was much of the guileless child and mere girl in Eveline still, -and she was so sweet and soft, so pliable, and so impressed with her -mother's will and her father's authority, that--that how could Evan -Cameron tell what pressure might be brought to bear upon her, to make -her seem to transfer the allegiance of her heart to another--even to -the wealthy old English baronet, Sir Paget Puddicombe? - -Alas! there was to be, in time, a pressure that none could then -foresee. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -AT MAVISWOOD. - -The reports which Mr. Hawke Holcroft--spinning out his precarious -existence by skill with the billiard cue, cards, and the betting -ring--heard concerning the health of his intended victim, one whom he -still absurdly and grotesquely deemed his successful rival, were -undoubtedly true. - -With all his natural strength. Allan Graham recovered but slowly -from all he had undergone, and the many hours he had lingered in that -vault with his fractured limb unset, together with the effect of -certain sabre wounds received when he served in India, retarded his -progress to restoration; but amid his protracted convalescence how -sweet it was, as the pleasant days of sunny spring stole on at -Maviswood, to have the society, the hourly care and attendance of -Olive, in whom he was always, he thought, discovering some new charm -of mind or grace of manner, with much soft tenderness of heart and -hand. - -Thus, twice--once in India and again at home--rescued, as it were, -from the verge of death, he had learned the sweetness of life, and -that, whatever its sufferings and sorrows may be, what a priceless -gift it is--a reflection that never occurred to him when going under -fire, or leading a line of Highlanders in their headlong charge. - -Lady Aberfeldie was content and happy; Evan Cameron seemed now a -banished man; even Allan never spoke of him, and the progress of -matters between the cousins proved all she could desire. - -'Nothing could be more fortunate, dearest Olive, than the attachment -which now subsists between you and Allan; it fulfils all your -father's fondest wishes,' said she, as she met them one day in the -garden, slowly promenading between the flowerbeds, Allan leaning, or -affecting to do so, on the soft, round arm of Olive. - -'Yes, mother dear--I agree with you, and also with Peter Simple,' -replied Allan, smiling. - -'In what?' - -'That the life of a man seems to consist of getting into scrapes, and -then getting out of them again.' - -'And you forget now that I ever teased and tormented you so, my poor -Allan,' said Olive, patting his rather pale cheek with her pinky palm. - -'Of course I do, darling. I am not much of a philosopher, but Balzac -is right in his view of human life--that it would be intolerable -without a vast amount of forgetting.' - -'And forgiving, too, he might have added,' said Olive, as she -tendered her lips playfully and poutingly for a kiss, which he was -not slow in according. - -Poor Eveline, as she watched this happy pair daily under her eyes, -sighed with natural and irrepressible envy; she thought of her own -love for Evan Cameron--secret, ignored, and so liable to excite -maternal scorn and bitterness, with paternal reprehension, when it -came on the _tapis_; while even Allan, at all times so loving and so -brotherly, amid the great selfishness or absorption of his own -passion, seemed, as she thought, to have withdrawn his sympathy from -her now. - -One circumstance she deemed most fortunate--Parliament was sitting, -and Sir Paget Puddicombe was in London. - -It would seem, then, that between the botheration of Ireland and the -interests of Egypt the affairs of Slough-cum-Sloggit--monetary, -municipal, and commercial--were as likely to be forgotten and ignored -as if that quiet borough had actually been an integral part of -Scotland--a state of matters not to be tolerated. So Sir Paget was -in his place at Westminster, jerking his head and puffing out his -chest more than ever, and Eveline was freed for a time from his -presence, and the would-be lover-like regard of his suspicious and -keenly-critical old eyes. - -And she knew not that almost daily, the moment that he was free from -duty or parade was over, Evan, drawn by an irrepressible craving and -desire to be near her--to see the roof under which she dwelt, the -windows through which she might be looking, the trees under which she -might be walking, was always hovering in the vicinity of Maviswood; -while, by a strange fatality, she, filled by a similar desire, might -be riding with her father, or driving with her mother, through -stately George Street, along the magnificent terrace of Princes -Street, and other great thoroughfares, looking eagerly, but in vain, -for a chance glimpse of him, and perhaps a bow--a mere bow, and -nothing more. - -Circumstanced as they were, what more could she look for? - -Twice only, and at long intervals, did she see Evan, and on each -occasion how wildly did her loving heart beat as she detected his -well-known figure; but he saw not her, as she rode slowly on by her -father's side, who, if he saw Evan on the first occasion, steadily -ignored the fact, and stared up at the Castle ramparts, where the -sentinels of the Black Watch trod slowly to and fro. - -Certainly Evan did not see her. He was on the garden side of Princes -Street the wooded walk which somewhat resembles a continental -boulevard--in close conversation with a young lady, who seemed to -listen to all he was saying with great _empressement_. - -The second time she saw him was after an interval of some days, in -the same place, at the same hour, and with the same fair companion, -to whom her father--thinking, no doubt, to utilise the -circumstance--drew her attention somewhat pointedly. - -'Cameron _again_!' said he; 'our friend seems to find other -attractions in the gardens than trees or spring flowers.' - -Eveline's heart beat painfully, and the second episode gave her -occasion for much and rather harassing thought. Her father, by this -remark, showed that he had observed Evan before; but who was the -latter's companion? - -Eveline blushed violently up to where the brim of her smart -riding-hat pressed her bright brown hair upon her brow, and down to -where a stiff and snow-white linen collar encircled her slender white -neck; then she grew very pale with constrained emotion, which, -fortunately, her father did not detect. - -She did not speak, but pretended to smile, with an effort of -self-mastery, while a lump seemed to rise in her slender throat; for -though the circumstance of Evan, who was debarred from coming to see -her, being seen there again with the same young lady might be a -casualty, a trivial coincidence, and quite explainable, her pride was -piqued and her affection wounded. - -Still more were they piqued and wounded when, some days after, as she -was seated in the carriage at the door of a shop in which Lady -Aberfeldie was giving some orders, she saw this girl loitering in the -same spot, looking anxiously around her, as if waiting for some one -who did not come, and whom Eveline's heart foreboded could only be -Evan Cameron! - -She snatched from the carriage-basket or reticule a lorgnette, -through which she could see that the girl was more than pretty, very -pale, and though plainly yet fashionably dressed, with an undoubtedly -ladylike air and bearing. - -If he was Evan she waited for, he did not keep his appointment, for, -after a time, the stranger turned sadly, lingeringly away, and -disappeared. - -A dancing-man, a popular young fellow like Evan Cameron, in one of -the most popular of Scottish regiments, could not fail to have many -lady friends in Edinburgh; but to have been seen twice in the same -place, with the same girl, at the same time, and apparently expected -there a _third_ time, was a little peculiar, and apt to cause Eveline -to speculate upon it unpleasantly. - -Was this companionship a matter of daily occurrence? Or was he, amid -the enforced separation from herself, beginning to replace her image -by another already--already? - -The tenderness of their last meeting, in the bay-window at Maviswood, -seemed to preclude this cruel idea, and to the hope that tenderness -inspired, she clung most lovingly; thus, as yet, she did not speak of -the matter to her cousin Olive, who--full of her own love-affair and -her new-found happiness--might not have sympathised with her as once -she would have done; and, to add to her trouble, in a little time she -would have her old admirer beside her again, as the member for -Slough-cum-Sloggit was making arrangements to pair off with another, -and would soon be able to leave London. - -However, some happiness was in store for her still. - -Cameron, to do him justice, spent too much of his spare time in -hovering about the vicinity of Maviswood not to be rewarded. Thus, -one clear, bright afternoon, in a lovely and lonely green lane, where -the holly hedges grew close and darkly, where the wood violets spread -their velvet leaves on the sunny banks, and where the mavis and merle -sang, they suddenly met each other, as he came walking slowly along -on foot, leading his horse by the bridle, which was flung over his -arm. - -His heart was so full of her that, when he met her suddenly face to -face thus, he scarcely evinced surprise, while tremulously she put -both her hands into his. - -'Evan!' - -'My darling--at last--at last!' - -No eye was upon them there as his arms went round her, and in the -great joy of seeing him, of meeting him thus, the two occasions on -which she had seen him with another, promenading slowly under the -trees in Princes Street, were forgotten and committed to oblivion; -though ere long they were to be roughly brought to her memory. - -'Oh, Evan--such long looked-for--such unexpected joy!' she exclaimed, -as hand in hand they gazed into each other's eyes. - -'Joy indeed, my own one. I had begun to fear we might never meet -again; and I shall not leave you now but with the assurance that we -shall meet as often as we can till--till----' - -'When, Evan?' - -'The regiment marches--marches for the East, as it is sure to do -before long. Eveline, you must be out in the garden, in the grounds -often; can I not meet you there or here again?' - -She shook her head sadly, and looked at him lovingly and imploringly. - -'The meetings in secret--without permission--would be wrong, Evan,' -said she. - -'Permission--who will give it? Whom--what have we to consult but our -own hearts?' he continued, passionately. 'We may have but little -time--less than we reckon on now--for the interchange of love and -joy, my dear one; and meet me you shall--you _must_,' he added, as he -folded her to his breast and covered her sweet passive face with -kisses, while something of hostility and defiance at her whole family -and at Sir Paget welled up in his heart. 'You will meet me again?' -he urged. - -'Yes,' she replied, in a scarcely audible whisper. - -It could be no sin, no crime--if an error--to meet one who loved her -so well as Evan did, and whom she loved so dearly too. It could not -harm her elderly adorer, from whose image just then she shrank with -intense loathing; and, if it was a wrong against her parents, surely -they were in error to coerce her, she thought. - -On the other hand, the temptation was great; the joy of meeting Evan -would end sadly and bitterly when, as he said, the regiment departed, -and after that they might never see each other more! - -'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,' say -the Scriptures; and not less sweet and pleasant were the interviews -that might be stolen thus in a green and lonely lane. - -'God help me and direct me!' thought the girl, as she nestled her -face in Cameron's neck, and, yielding to the natural impulses of her -own heart, promised to meet him again and again, when time and -opportunity served; and they did so in the lane between the holly -hedges, by the rural woodland road that deep between the hills, leads -to Ravelston Quarry and haunted Craigcrook; and at times near the old -church, where the buried Forresters lie under their altar tombs with -shield on arm and sword at side; and as the days went on each -meeting--as it seemed to take place without suspicion or -discovery--served to cement their hearts together more and more. - -But once, when Evan was riding home in the dusk in the vicinity of -Maviswood, he passed a wayfarer afoot, in whose face he thought he -recognised--nay, was certain he saw--the features of Holcroft. - -'Holcroft!' thought Evan; 'a man to guard against, by Jove. What can -_he_ be about in this neighbourhood--what but mischief?' - -He wheeled his horse round, but the man he had seen, had stepped over -a stile and disappeared. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -'ALICE!' - -My Lady Aberfeldie was all unconscious of the little romance that had -been going on for some weeks past in the green lanes and wooded paths -near Maviswood; while Eveline seemed now but to live for the purpose -of meeting Evan Cameron, and her loving heart and busy little head -were full of cunning schemes and contrivances to escape detection and -achieve their meetings, which now seemed to make the whole sense of -her existence; and when not with Evan, or if they failed (which was -seldom) to see each other, even for a few minutes, her manner became -abstracted and triste. - -But a rude awakening from her joyous dreams was at hand, and certain -past events that seemed trivial in themselves were doomed to be -recalled to her with a new and terrible significance! - -They had one more than usually tender meeting and tender parting, -because Sir Paget Puddicombe--the _bête noir_, the bugbear of -both--was certainly coming to Maviswood, and Eveline was weeping -bitterly. - -'Take courage--take courage, my darling,' said Evan, as he kissed the -tears from her eyes and strained her to his breast before he leaped -on his horse; 'for my sake and your own have strength to resist, and -all may yet be well--for my sake and your own, dearest Alice,' he -added, with quivering lips, and was gone. - -'_Alice!_' - -Another's name uttered by his lips involuntarily while his heart -seemed to be teeming with tenderness for herself--uttered in that -moment of supreme sorrow, passion, and endearment--escaped him -mechanically, as it were, yet too evidently by use and wont! - -What did it mean--what could it mean, but one thing? - -Her heart stood still for a moment and then beat wildly; she did not -hear the noise of his horse's hoofs dying away in the distance, nor -did she see his lessening figure, for the powers of hearing and of -vision seemed to fail her. - -She had received a cruel and terrible shock. Had she heard aright, -or was it all a delusion of her ear, yet she repeated to herself with -pallid face and quivering lips the word 'Alice!' while memory flashed -back to the girl she had seen thrice--twice with Evan, and once -evidently waiting for him at what seemed their trysting-place. - -She remembered that the second time she had seen them they were -walking silently together--full of their own thoughts apparently--and -making no effort to entertain each other, and she had read that it is -only 'the nearest and dearest' of kinships--the closest and sweetest -of human intimacies that could explain such "wordless proximity." -Strangers, acquaintances, when thrown together _must_ politely talk; -brother and sister, husband and wife, may be confidently, blessedly -silent!' - -She remembered now, with ready suspicion, that, when she and Evan -first met suddenly afterwards, he scarcely evinced surprise. We have -said that it was because his heart was full of her image, but this -idea, this hope, did not occur to Eveline then--her mind was a chaos. - -How she got through the remainder of that day she never knew; she had -but one wish: to shun her mother's eye. To seclude herself in her -own room would attract attention; thus she remained in the -drawing-room and affected to read. She opened a book at the page and -point where she had last left off. - -Alas! it was beyond the power of books to soothe or win her from -herself now. The Lethean power of the novelist had departed, and her -whole mind seemed out of tune. - -She threw aside the volume and took up another, but a cry escaped her -as it fell from her hands. It was Bulwer's 'Alice, or the -Mysteries;' the name seemed to enter her heart like a knife, and she -rushed away to her room. - -The dressing-bell for dinner, when it rang, found her very pale, and -wrestling, as it were, with a strange and unusual pain that was -eating its way into her heart. - -She bathed her face again and again, but failed to hide the dark -shadows under her eyes or the inflammation of their delicate lids. - -And at dinner-time that evening an additional stab was given to her -in the most casual and unexpected way. Her father had brought from -his club to Maviswood Carslogie of the Black Watch, a heedless and -thoughtless young fellow, of whom she overheard Allan making some -inquiries concerning Cameron of Stratherroch. - -'Oh, Strath is jolly as a sandboy,' replied Carslogie, 'but he has -some mysterious affair of the heart on just now.' - -'How?' - -'In the usual way. There is a pretty girl he goes about with to all -public places, but introduces to no one. She is without a chaperone, -and no one knows whether she is maid, wife, or widow; funny, by Jove, -isn't it?' - -Carslogie said this in a low voice to Allan, yet not so low but that -it reached the ears of Eveline, who had some difficulty in concealing -her agitation. - -With instinctive tenderness Allan glanced at his sister and skilfully -changed the subject to the then invariable topic of Arabi Pasha and -'the coming row in Egypt.' - -Times there were when she had thought that she would condescend to go -once again to their trysting-place, and seek an explanation; but now, -after what Carslogie had said, wild horses should not drag her there! - -She would never upbraid Evan with his baseness, never more would she -go there; she would simply tear his image out of her heart, and let -the matter end. But this was easier to say than to achieve. - -Her soul seemed to have become numbed within her--frozen, if we may -use such terms. - -Even in the matter of Sir Paget, she was conscious now of feeling -neither repugnance nor ridicule, though she felt a little repentance -at her opposition to the wishes of her father and mother, and for the -duplicity of which she had been guilty towards them in her love for -an unworthy object, and meeting him in secret, as if she had been a -sewing-girl or waiting-maid, and not the daughter of a peer, and -putting herself, perhaps, in an equivocal position. - -She confided in Olive; otherwise her heart, she thought, would burst. - -'The heart is said to be "deceitful above all things, and desperately -wicked,"' said Olive, 'but I must confess that this affair passes my -comprehension. He cannot be in love with _two_ at once; yet I have -read of such things. Forget him; you must do that--at least. You -endure too much, Eveline; you believed in him too much, and, I fear, -hoped too much. Even friendship has its limits; how much more so -love.' - -'And but yesterday I was so happy--happy in a love the end of which I -could not foresee!' wailed poor Eveline, on her cousin's bosom. - -What was she like, this Alice? Her rival--oh, disgrace! Fair or -dark--she remembered that she was pale and pretty. But what did it -matter, thought the now crushed girl, as she tossed feverishly on her -pillow in the gloom and solitude of the night, when even our thoughts -seem to assume distinct outlines that become sharp and vivid. - -Night had passed--a new day dawned, and how far, far off seemed -yesterday! The sun had risen in his glory; the blackbirds were -singing in the dew-laden shrubberies of Maviswood; and the pale mists -were clearing off Torduff and Kirkyetton Craig, the highest summits -of the lovely Pentlands. - -It was late ere Eveline had wept herself to sleep; but to her it -seemed as if she had not slept at all. Thus it was proportionately -late when she awoke heavily to the morning of a new day. - -She had given her whole soul with joy to her hopeless love for -Evan--hopeless, but pure--though any happy end to it she could not -foresee; but this was a bitter collapse she did not anticipate, and -now her 'occupation was gone.' - -Was she the same Eveline Graham who but yesterday morning shook off -sleep so lightly, and rose fresh, strong, and full of hope, with the -conviction that her secret lover was true to her and to this hopeless -passion? - -Her affectionate heart was crushed; her self-esteem was in the dust; -her proud head lay low indeed; and for the first time in her young -life she had learned what it is to be cut to the soul--to be -completely humbled. - -And Alice--who and what was _she_? - -'And oh, Olive, how am I to meet mamma?' was the first exclamation -after they had got rid of Mademoiselle Clairette. - -She knew she would have to join in the conversation of the -breakfast-table, when all her vigilance would be requisite to prevent -her from pit-falls of suspicious silence or confusion of manner, with -the helpless air and uncertain voice of one who seeks to conceal a -new and hitherto unknown sorrow: and to undergo, with her sad, white, -humiliated face, her mother's critical and observant eyes. - -If, in desperation, she did not act a part, that watchful mother -would be sure to detect a change, and that there was something wrong. - -Eveline knew well that she would soon detect every flicker of her -eyelashes, every tremor of the heavy white lids, that would droop in -spite of her now; but luckily Lady Aberfeldie was busy in her boudoir -with the housekeeper and Mr. Tappleton, the butler, giving orders; -for Sir Paget Puddicombe would arrive ere long! - -Carslogie had gone back to Edinburgh, of course, last night. He -would be with Evan Cameron this morning on parade and so forth; would -the latter question him about his visit to Maviswood, about _her_ -perhaps? But what did it matter now whether he did so or did not? -Nothing--less than nothing! - -How long the hours seemed now when they were empty--_quite_ empty of -all but bitterness. - -Meanwhile days passed on, and Cameron came, as was his wont, to the -usual places of meeting, but Eveline was never there. - -What had happened--how was she detained? Had an illness come upon -her? His mind was a prey to the keenest anxiety, which he was -without the means of allaying. He could not write to ask for any -explanation, neither could he call at Maviswood after the somewhat -studied coldness of his last reception there by her father and mother. - -At each place and spot where so lately they had met and wandered, the -thoughts that found utterance there, and many a tender caress came -potently and poignantly back to memory now. Where was she, what -doing, how engaged and with whom--in sickness or in health?--he asked -of himself with endless iteration. - -Trivialities are often associated with the greatest eventualities in -our lives. Thus long in the memory of Evan would his last visit to -one of these beloved spots be associated with the shrill notes of a -mavis perched upon the topmost bough of a tree. - -Ignorant as yet of what he himself had done, ignorant also of the -mischief his friend Carslogie had unintentionally done him by -retailing some mess-room gossip, in the vagueness of his thoughts and -ideas of the whole situation, which we shall ere-long unravel, -Cameron was inclined to attribute the total cessation of Eveline's -meetings with him to some mysterious influence of Hawke Holcroft--if -Holcroft it was whom he saw in the dusk. - -From Carslogie he learned that 'she was looking well and jolly,' as -he phrased it. When Allan rejoined he would hear more of her, he -hoped; but Allan's sick leave was protracted from time to time, and -none seemed to know _when_ he would be with the regiment again. - -Once these parted lovers saw each other but for a moment only! - -Accompanied by a groom, Eveline rode at a canter past him on a lonely -part of the road near Maviswood, her eyes full of unshed tears, her -face pale with resentment, and her veil in her teeth. - -Past him, as if he was a stranger! - -'Why stop to speak or expect an explanation?' thought the girl. 'In -this world do not actions speak louder a thousand times than words -can ever do?' - -She was a Graham of Dundargue, and would show him that she was not of -the kind of stuff that facile Amelias or patient Griseldas are made! - -Yet to pass him by thus, cost her a mighty effort, though to Eveline -it seemed that there was nothing left for her now 'but to wrestle -valiantly with that pain which, in the world's eye, degrades the -woman who smarts under it--the pain of an unshared love.' - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -'THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO.' - -'Young Stratherroch seems to have accepted the situation. He is much -too sharp and well-bred a man not to have seen that he was--well--in -the way rather,' said Lady Aberfeldie to her husband one afternoon. -'One thing is certain at least, he has ceased to visit here.' - -'Dropped out of the hunt--yes,' assented the peer, as he filled and -lit his briar-root. 'Poor fellow! he was--or is--undoubtedly fond of -our little girl.' - -'Such fondness was folly in one so poor; and now, as Sir Paget comes -to-day, I do not see why we should not have the two marriages at -once. I am most anxious to have all this fuss ended and done with.' - -'There are several deeds to draw and so forth in the matter of Allan -and Olive; and as for Eveline she has not yet consented.' - -'She must do so now, I presume,' said Lady Aberfeldie, impatiently -wafting aside with her white hand a cloud of smoke the peer was -creating. - -'Both marriages,' said he, reflectively; 'but how if the regiment -goes on foreign service--and the corps expects orders of readiness -daily, I understand?' - -'Allan can send in his papers.' - -'Impossible! You do not consider what you say.' - -'He is not well enough to go abroad.' - -'He is too well to remain behind; and if well enough to marry I fear -that F.M. the Commander-in-Chief will deem him well enough to march.' - -'Anyway it will secure Olive's fortune in the family.' - -'It is secured as it is by her father's will so long as Allan is -willing to consent; but as our loving daughter-in-law, there will be -no necessity for the enforcement of the clause that is so grotesque. -As regards Sir Paget and Eveline----' - -'Leave me to manage Eveline,' said Lady Aberfeldie, bluntly and -loftily. - -The result of her management was soon apparent, though she knew not -that circumstances, of which she was as yet unaware, were playing -into her hands, and would yet more completely do so. - -'Sir Paget, as you know, Eveline, will be here to-day,' said she, -with an arm round her daughter's neck, 'and we--that is, your papa -and I--trust, child, that you will receive him as you ought, and wear -the jewels he sent you.' - -Lady Aberfeldie used her softest yet firmest voice as she spoke to -Eveline, but it sounded to the latter as the voice of one who was a -long, long way off. - -She made no immediate reply; but with her hands tightly interlaced, -as if thereby she would quell emotion, seemed to be gazing down at -her nicely pointed little foot that rested on a velvet fender-stool. - -'Why mope here, growing pale and thin, for a thing without -substance--a dream--a shadow, Eveline; you understand me?' - -'A dream--a shadow, indeed, mamma!' - -'You hear me, child?' said her mother. - -'Yes, mamma,' replied Eveline, who seemed to shiver with cold as her -mother left her, but with a long backward glance that had more of -menace than entreaty in it. - -'He never loved me,' Eveline was thinking. 'I have given my heart -for nothing, and am now cast aside for another, like a broken toy -discarded by a child. He dared to trifle with me--my father's -daughter! It is clear now that he fancied, or merely pretended to be -in love with me, while all the time his heart was given to--_Alice_!' - -And she would have been either more or less than human, if with her -just indignation there did not mingle a certain sentiment of revenge -that bore her up in the part she meant to act now; though she shrank -as yet from the conviction that, when esteem dies, love dies with it. - -So that evening Eveline wore the suite of jewels--such jewels as Bond -Street alone can furnish--and Sir Paget, as he sat by her side, -jerked his little bald head about, in the exuberance of joy, and in a -way that was really alarming. - -Olive was looking radiantly beautiful, in a brilliant dinner costume, -with Allan's Maltese suite of diamonds and pearls sparkling on her -neck and arms, which Lady Aberfeldie had urged her to don in honour -of Sir Paget, and in defiance of a _moue_ and pitiful glance of -Eveline, who had no small difficulty in acquitting herself at dinner -in her new role of _fiancée_, but nearly broke down when she heard -Sir Paget raise his voice and say to her father something that he was -not sorry he might say with a clear conscience, and as a -matter-of-fact. - -'Oh, by the way, Aberfeldie, when I arrived at the rail way-station -this morning I witnessed a very tender leave-taking between a young -friend of yours and a most charming girl--gad, the fellow has -taste--a girl whom he was seeing off, to London, I presume, by the -Flying Scotsman, it was quite pathetic, by Jove!' - -'A young friend of ours--who do you mean, Sir Paget?' asked Lady -Aberfeldie. - -'Cameron, of the Black Watch, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at -Dundargue--you remember,' said Sir Paget, playing with the stem of -his champagne-glass, and not daring to look at Eveline, whose white -hand he saw trembling as she toyed with her grapes. - -'Oh--oh--indeed--and the young lady----' - -'Had "Mrs. Cameron" painted on all her luggage--great Indian -overlands, some of it.' - -'_Mrs. Cameron_,' repeated Lady Aberfeldie, whose aristocratic face -shone in spite of herself at these tidings, while Lord Aberfeldie -looked flushed and perplexed, and like Allan, who pitied his poor -sister, remained silent. - -This astounding intelligence was to poor Eveline as 'the last straw' -to the over-laden camel; she betrayed no outward emotion, though her -heart and spirit were completely broken down, for a phase of -duplicity which she could never have conceived was now suddenly laid -bare to her. - -When, with her aunt and cousin, she retired to the drawing-room, the -latter pressed her hand affectionately and caressingly, while the -former, too proud or too prudent to refer to what they had just heard -so greatly to her satisfaction, sat in a shady corner and slowly -fanned herself in silence with a great round feather fan. - -An emotion of jealous spite at young Cameron, with rivalry, passion, -and ambition to possess a young, beautiful, and highly-born wife, all -now inspired Sir Paget, who, to do him justice in the anecdote he had -told, had told no more than the truth, and, for the happiness of Evan -Cameron, we are sorry to say it. - -But though now permitting herself quietly to drift with the stream of -events, and to become a tool in the hands of others, it was -impossible for Eveline, when with Sir Paget in the grounds, or when -alone in the drawing-room, not to shrink from his now privileged -caresses and attentions; thus once she shocked him by saying, as she -withdrew her hands from his clasp, - -'Oh, Sir Paget, do you really mean to marry a woman who does not and -never can love you?' - -'Do not say "never can." How can we know what the future may have -for me--for _us_, my dear girl?' - -'Who, indeed, save One!' sighed the girl, wearily. - -'I would rather have half your heart than the whole of any other -woman's,' said Sir Paget, gallantly, while recapturing her hands, and -jerking out his head in turtle fashion. - -'My whole heart,' thought Eveline, 'is--oh, no--was full of Evan, but -can have no vacant corner for any other, especially such a man as -this.' - -And even while she thought this she shivered as if with cold, when in -right of his new position he caressed her. - -'How, with all their innate pride, papa and mamma are content to -abandon me to this absurd little man Puddicombe, as they do, passes -my comprehension,' said she to Olive. 'Puddicombe--such an absurd -name too,' she added, with a little laugh that was hysterical; 'and -what object can the splendour of his settlements be to them? They -seem to ignore the fact that the Grahams of Dundargue were barons of -the Scottish Parliament when the ancestors of half the British -peerage were hewers of wood and drawers of water--peasantry and -artisans!' - -So in the bloom of her youth and beauty, the time 'when the light -that surrounds us is all from within,' Eveline Graham was to become a -victim at the altar after all--after all! - -And Cameron seemed to have prepared the path for her, for, stunned by -his too apparent duplicity, she schooled herself for the _rôle_ of -indifference to fate; but this was chiefly by day, for often at night -she would lie where she had thrown herself, across her bed, -forgetting even to undress, her tear-blotted face covered by her soft -arm, and so in the morning the wondering and sympathising Clairette -would find her. - -June was creeping on now, with its sunny, fragrant breath; there were -white and purple blossoms in the parterres of the garden; the -graceful laburnums were dropping their golden petals in showers over -the rosebuds and green lawns that were bordered by dark shining -myrtles and deep-tinted laurels and rhododendrons. - -From the fields came the rasping sound made by the mower as he -whetted his scythe, before which the rich feathered grass and the -wild flowers are done to death; elsewhere the joyous haymakers were -hard at work, and the dust of June began to roll along the roads -before the wind in the sunshine. - -'June!' thought Eveline. 'Where will the winter find me?' - -The preparations for her marriage were hurried on with a rapidity -that appalled her; but, dear as the scheme was to Lady Aberfeldie, a -somewhat unexpected event delayed that of Allan and Olive Raymond, -and gave the Aberfeldie family once more something else to think of. - -One evening when all the others were in Edinburgh save himself and -Olive--for Eveline's forthcoming marriage kept all rather busy -now--Allan, full of his own happy thoughts, and the joy that would be -his ere long, was smoking in the grounds, when he was startled by a -shrill cry that proceeded from an open window of the house--a French -window that opened to the ground--and swift as light a man dashed -past him and disappeared among the thick shrubberies. - -'A thief!' was Allan's first thought; 'but whose cry was that?' was -his second. - -The face of the intruder, who passed near him--a pale and familiar -one, seen just as Cameron had before seen it--seemed to be that of -Hawke Holcroft. - -'Impossible,' thought Allan, as he hurried towards the house; but it -was not until he had further proofs that he became aware that the -face he had seen--the face of ill-omen--was that of Holcroft! - -He hurried into the apartment through the open window, and was -horrified to find Olive prostrate on the floor, with her arms -outspread, and in a fainting condition. He raised her up and laid -her on a sofa, withdrawing the pillow from under her head, and looked -round for water to lave her face and hands, one of which clutched a -pen. - -A large sealskin cigar case, with Rio Hondo cigars in it--a case -which he well remembered to have seen in possession of Holcroft--lay -upon the floor. - -How came it there, unless the man he saw was, beyond all doubt, Hawke -Holcroft? - -Olive's cheque-book--for she had a bank account of her own--lay open -on her davenport, and Allan's eye caught the counterfoil of one, -dated that very day, and almost wet still, for £400. - -'Four hundred pounds!' he gasped, and tried to tear open his necktie, -while the room swam round him. 'Oh, God! can it be that she is -playing fast and loose with me and that double-dyed villain?' - -That she should have any intercourse, verbal or written, with such a -wretch excited in Allan a gust of rage and bewilderment, disgust, -horror, and intense perplexity. - -Yet it might be all quite explainable--even the cheque. - -She opened her eyes and closed them again, and pathetically he -besought her to tell him what had happened, but could elicit no -reply. Her slender throat seemed parched, as she failed to -articulate. - -'Oh, Olive,' said he, 'if I alarm you, forgive me. You know how I -love you. Why torture me by this silence--tell me all--_what_ has -happened--_who_ has been here?' - -But he urged and pled in vain; her teeth were clenched. - -'Is it some folly--some girlish imprudence? _what_ is it? Dear love, -only tell me?' - -Still she was silent, and Allan's brows knit darkly and ominously, -while, in the excited state of his nerves, he felt sharp twinges in -the arm that had been fractured, and, when consciousness came -partially back to Olive, she covered her face with her hands, and -sobbed heavily and spasmodically. - -What had happened? Why was she so suddenly cast down, hurled, as it -were, from the joy, rapture, and repose of an hour ago, to the -apparent agony and shame of the present? - -Nothing could be elicited from her, and the next day found her in a -species of hysterical fever, and in the hands of the doctor. - -In a short time it was discovered that her cheque--an open -one--payable to Mr. Hawke Holcroft, and duly endorsed by that -personage, had been presented and cashed at a bank; yet no -explanation could be elicited from her about it. - -'She had on the ill-omened diamonds, mother,' said Allan, -interrogatively. 'How was this?' - -'I lent them to her, as the bride of the house, and doubtless she had -been trying them on when--when----' - -'This scoundrel thrust himself upon her presence?' - -'I suppose so,' said Lady Aberfeldie, weeping. - -'Evil always comes of these accursed stones!' - -'It is simply outrageous,' said Lord Aberfeldie, sternly and loftily, -'that even the family of the most humble tradesman should be haunted -by a Frankenstein--a swindler, and worse, like this--but that a house -like mine--the house of a peer of the realm----' - -And his lordship in his indignation paused as utterance failed him. - -'Mystery is involved here,' exclaimed Lady Aberfeldie, 'and I dislike -it intensely, as vulgar and very bad style.' - -'By Jove, I should think so,' added Allan, gloomily; 'but this -affair, like Cameron's marriage, beats the mysteries of Udolpho!' - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -'GUP,' AND WHAT CAME OF IT, - -And now, ere it is too late, to let a little light on what must seem -a mystery, and to tell a story which Eveline was not to hear until -the fatal die was cast. - -'Dear Evan,' said a handsome girl, as she interlaced her slender -fingers on Cameron's arm lovingly in one of the most secluded walks -of the Princes-Street Gardens, and under the shadow of the towering -castle rock, 'I cannot bear to see you looking so unhappy--what _is_ -the matter?' - -'Eveline Graham has ceased to meet me. She is ill--or--or I know not -what!' - -'Cannot you ascertain?' - -'No. I have no means of ascertaining; moreover, only the other day -she cut me.' - -'Cut you--passed you?' - -'Cut me dead!' - -'Surely that was bad in taste.' - -'And cruel too--so unlike her, Alice darling, that I know not what to -think.' - -'She has resolved to accept her rich old baronet--that is all; and I -shall hear all about it when I am far away from you in India. How -strange,' added the girl, dreamily, while a great, yet pensive, joy -lighted up her blue eyes, 'how strange to think that I am still in -Edinburgh, and so far away from _him_, when there was a time when I -wondered if anyone in this world was ever so happy as I, when dear -stupid Duncan asked me to be his wife! And oh, Evan dear, but for -you and your great kindness to us, my heart must have broken and I -should never have seen Duncan more!' - -The fair speaker was the Alice whose name had unconsciously escaped -Evan, as his heart was full of a great love and pity for her--the -wife of his younger brother Duncan, from whom she had been separated -in consequence of a foolish jealous quarrel, and having been, through -that, sent home by him from India, had no other friend in Europe to -whom to turn for succour and support than the kind-hearted, but -half-penniless Laird of Stratherroch, who had at last effected an -explanation and reconciliation between them. - -When quartered in cantonments, in the first year of their marriage, -not far from Hurdwar on the Ganges (where Allan got the idol he gave -to Olive) there seemed to be no more loving and attached couple than -Duncan Cameron and his little wife Alice, and both were prime -favourites with the garrison; he, for his fine bearing which made him -the pattern officer of his regiment--a Bengal Infantry corps--his -skill in horsemanship, as a marksman and pigsticker, and his general -_bonhomie_ and good nature. She, for her beauty and sweetness, her -great abundance of animal spirits, and a charming _espièglerie_ that -made her the object of attention from all. - -Ladies were scarce in these cantonments so far 'up country,' and thus -Alice proved a wonderful attraction to all the young subs at the -band-stand, or on the racecourse, and elsewhere; and they hovered -about her rather more than Duncan Cameron quite relished. - -She was a leading feature at all the entertainments given by Sir -Bevis Batardeau, G.C.S.I., the brigadier, and his wife; and indeed no -ball, picnic, or dance was deemed complete without the presence of -Alice Cameron. - -Now, Sir Bevis was a notorious old _roué_, and the cause of much -'gup,' as scandal or gossip is called in India. He was a middle-aged -man of fashion, grizzled and rather bald, with a reddish nose and -wicked eyes, while Lady Batardeau, his senior by a year or two, was a -kind and motherly woman, who loved Alice dearly; and 'gup' of course -asserted that the General did so too, in a fashion of his own, and -many things were said that never reached as yet the ears of Duncan -Cameron. - -The latter was sent to some distance from the cantonments on a -particular duty, and poor Alice was left to mope in her bungalow -alone. - -'I often thought,' she said, 'if anything should ever separate us, I -would die. The fear smote me like a sword's point, Evan, and the -night Duncan left me a jackal howled fearfully in the compound. Was -it ominous of evil? I fear so--for separated terribly we were fated -to be, through no fault of mine.' - -These forebodings made her pass sleeplessly the hot and breathless -Indian nights while hourly the cantonment _ghurries_ were clanged, -and the jackals howled in the prickly hedges, and the mosquitoes -seemed a thousand times more annoying--no chowrie would whisk them -out of the muslin curtains; and her breakfast seemed so insipid now, -and Gunga Ram, the _khansa-man_, or native butler, could find nothing -to tempt her appetite; yet Gunga, though, like most Hindostanees, -doubtful of the virtue of every European woman, was devoted to his -own particular _mehm Sahib_. - -Every morning she had been wont to watch at the open Venetian blinds -of their bungalow for the handsome figure of Duncan returning from -the early parade, while the sun was yet on the verge of the horizon; -and every evening was spent together in delicious idleness--riding on -the course, promenading by the band-stand, or wandering among the -groves where the baubool breathes an exquisite perfume from its bells -of gold, as the oleander does from its clusters of pink and white -blossoms, and where the lovely little tailor-bird sews two leaves -together and swings in his sweet-scented nest from the bough of some -little tree. - -Hourly she longed for the return of Duncan. - -She was a petted favourite with Lady Batardeau, who, when calling on -her one day, found her asleep under the verandah outside Cameron's -bungalow on a long low Indian arm-chair. - -Thinking how charming the girl-wife looked, Lady Batardeau, in -playful kindness, slipped on one of her fingers a rose-diamond ring, -which had been in the past time a gift to herself from Sir Bevis, -when she valued his gifts more than she had reason to do now; and, -having done this, she went softly and laughingly away. - -To the joy of Alice, Cameron returned suddenly while she was yet -puzzling herself to account for the presence of the ring, and for a -time, in the happiness of their reunion, she forgot all about it, -till he, while toying with her pretty hands, observed it on her -finder. - -'A magnificent ring, Alice,' said he. 'Where did it come from?' - -'That is more than I can tell you.' - -'How?' he asked. - -'I found that it had been slipped on my finger when I was asleep.' - -'By whom?' - -'I cannot say, Duncan dear.' - -On examining the jewel he saw graven on the inside the name of that -notorious old _roué_ and Lothario, the brigadier! - -Lady Batardeau had left the cantonments for awhile, and poor Alice -could give no explanation as to how the mysterious ring with the name -of Sir Bevis thereon came to be on her finger. Duncan loved her so -trustfully, so utterly, that doubt failed for a time to find a place -in his gallant heart; but 'gup' had playfully asserted that the old -brigadier immensely admired young Mrs. Cameron--he recalled some -jests he had heard, and now the poison they breathed was stealing -upon his senses, and his face grew white as death. - -Duncan mistook the genuine confusion of Alice for guilt--her dismay -for dread of detection, and the whole affair for a feature in an -intrigue. He knew how keen and bitter was scandal in India, and -already he saw himself a source of mockery and disgrace, and -figuring, perhaps, in the columns of the _Hurkara_! - -He saw it all now! He had been sent on duty to a distance for some -days, as he believed out of his turn, and by the express order of the -brigadier. - -That circumstance had surprised him, but he believed it was fully -explained now by finding the ring of Sir Bevis on his wife's finger, -and he became transported with fury. Alice cowered for a time -beneath the expression she read in his face. - -Could it be possible, he thought, that she was proving as one of the -'dead-sea apples of life, which a mocking fate so often throws in our -lap, charming to the imagination, but bitter to the sense?' - -'Duncan!' said Alice, softly and imploringly; but he felt all the -mute despair of a broken heart, the agony of a shaken faith, and he -put her soft white hands gently from him, as if he would never seek -them in this life again. - -He at once sought the presence of the brigadier, who, on hearing what -he had to say, certainly--to do him justice--was rather bewildered. - -'I beg leave, sir, to return to you this ring,' said Duncan, tossing -it contemptuously on the table. - -'My ring--my wife's ring it was--' - -'_Was_--eh!' - -'Yes, Captain Cameron. Where did you find it?' - -'Where you placed it, I doubt not.' - -'I do not understand your tone and manner, Captain Cameron; but I -certainly placed it on the finger----' - -'Of my wife,' said Duncan, hoarsely and scornfully. 'I thank you for -your kind attention, but trust that it will end here ere worse come -of it. I am not a man to be trifled with, Sir Bevis.' - -Now, Sir Bevis had no dislike to be thought 'a gay Lothario, a sad -dog, and all that sort of thing,' so he actually simpered -provokingly, shrugged his shoulders and said, deprecatingly, - -'Really, you wrong Mrs. Cameron.' - -'She has deceived me!' exclaimed Duncan, furiously. - -'If a woman can't deceive her own husband, _whom_ may she deceive!' -asked the unwise brigadier. - -'In the days of the pistol this matter would not have ended here.' - -'Come, come, don't let you and I fall to carte and tierce in this -fashion,' said the general; 'it may be explainable----' - -'I want no explanations!' - -'As you please. It seems there is a little romance in most lives----' - -'With your grey hairs you should have outlived all that, I think.' - -Now his years proved a sore point with old Sir Bevis, and he became -inflamed with anger; but, ere he could retort, Duncan had jerked his -sword under his left arm and swept from his presence with a rather -withering expression in his face, and that very evening saw Alice in -the train for Delhi, _en route_ to Europe. - -'Innocent, I suffer all the shame and all the agony of guilt! Oh, it -is hard, Duncan--very, very hard,' were the last words she said, -brokenly, to her husband, who heard her with a stern silence that -astonished her. - -Now that Lady Batardeau, on her return to the cantonments, had -explained the whole story of the ring, Duncan was--when too late, for -his wife was on the sea--full of shame and contrition for his -suspicions and severity, and had written to crave the pardon of Alice -and insure her return to him again; hence the farewell and departure -of 'Mrs. Cameron,' with her overlands and other baggage, as witnessed -by the sharp little eyes of Sir Paget Puddicombe at the Waverley -Station, and thus it was that, by an unexplained mistake, two fond -hearts were separated for ever; but separated they would have been -eventually by fate or fortune--the lack of fortune, rather--as time -may show. - -But for a time poor Eveline had to ponder bitterly on the humiliating -thought that Evan Cameron had been thinking of _another_ face, form, -and name while in the act of caressing herself, and that the other -was--as Sir Paget had left them no reason to doubt, and never himself -doubted--Evan Cameron's wife! - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -OLIVE'S VISITOR, - -Another mystery has now to be accounted for--the state in which Allan -found Olive when her cry reached him as he idled with his cigar in -the grounds at Maviswood in the evening, when the rest of the family -circle were in town. - -Olive was seated alone in one of the drawing-rooms when a gentleman -was announced--a gentleman who no doubt thought Allan was absent in -Edinburgh also. - -'Mr. Holcroft.' - -'Mr. Holcroft!' A book she was reading fell from the hand of Olive, -and she started to her feet as that personage, hat in hand, stood -smilingly before her. For a moment she could scarcely believe her -eyes as they met the pale, watery, and shifty ones of her unexpected -visitor. - -Terror and horror filled her heart on finding herself face to face -with this man--an assassin in intent! It was too horrible--too -_outré_ and grotesque to think of. - -But what was his intention now? She was not left long in ignorance. -Why did she not rush to the bell--summon the household, and have the -daring intruder expelled or arrested? But no--she felt a very coward -just then, with a great dread of Allan discovering him, and a heavy, -sickening foreboding of coming evil. - -There came dreamily to her memory, too, some threatening words of his -when he had said that he would let no man come between them, and -that, though he might fail to compel her to love him, he might compel -her to marry him: but neither love nor marriage were in the mind of -her horrible visitor just then. - -Mr. Hawke Holcroft seemed rather 'down on his luck,' and looked -somewhat shabby and seedy. The last fragment of his patrimony had -been swallowed up; his betting-book had proved a mistake, as he had -for some time past backed the wrong horses; cards had failed him and -play of all kinds; in short, he was desperate, and hence his -appearance at Maviswood. - -To attempt the role of a lover again, after all that had passed, and -after all that he was aware must be known to Miss Raymond, was, he -knew, impossible; but he had a trump card to play in the way of -extortion--plain, blunt, rascally extortion; so, conceiving that the -girl was utterly alone, he could not for the life of him resist -bantering her a little, all the more as the utter loathing and dread -her face expressed, enraged him. - -'Mr. Holcroft!' she exclaimed, in a breathless voice, as she recoiled -and became white as a lily. - -'Yes, Hawke Holcroft, the man your fatal beauty has made him,' said -he, with melodramatic gloom and folded arms; 'when I met you first I -met my fate--a love that was my doom. But for you, would I ever have -been mad enough to attempt the life of Allan Graham?' - -'How dare you come here--how dare you speak to me thus!' said Olive, -glancing at the bell handle; but he planted himself between it and -her. - -'The love of you came to me when first you looked into my face,' he -resumed, in his melodramatic style; 'I remember it was but a smile--a -smile; yet a mist came before my eyes--a something stirred my heart. -Ah, Olive Raymond, it was your beautiful eyes that suddenly kindled -new life within me--that will only end with the old.' - -Olive was more irritated than alarmed now. - -'How dare you come here?' she asked. - -'I can't help it--needs must when old Boots drives,' said he; 'I came -to show you a work of art. Look here.' - -From his pocket-book he drew out and held before her at arm's length -the cabinet photo of herself in a ball-dress; the photo, or one like -it, that she had the folly to give him at Dundargue; but to her -horror and dismay she saw that it had been reproduced, reversed, and -manipulated in some way by some low photographer, and combined with -one of Holcroft himself, posed as if in the act of embracing her, -forming a strange group of two, whose likenesses there would be no -mistaking, more especially that of her, as it was a miraculous work -of art in its truth and individuality. - -It was Olive to the life, with her brightest and sweetest expression -now bent on his face! - -'I am glad you recognise us,' said he, mockingly, as he replaced the -photo in its receptacle, and the latter in his breast pocket; 'and -now to business. What would your drawing-room hero think of this, if -he saw it? Ha, ha! He did not approve of Byron at Dundargue, I -remember--would rather we stuck to Dr. Watts' hymns, I suppose--'How -doth the little busy bee," and so forth; well, like that industrious -insect, I mean to improve "the shining hour." How would he--how will -you and your family, with all their cursed Scotch pride--like to see -this photo in every shop window exposed for sale to the British -public, among ballet-girls in snowstorms, countesses swinging in -hammocks, bishops, and generals--murderers, too, perhaps--eh? In a -week or two I may have a million copies of this precious photo for -sale in London and elsewhere. Do you realise the meaning of this, my -scornful beauty? and the result it must have on you, your name, your -character, your family, and your future--Miss Olive Raymond posed in -the arms of Hawke Holcroft?' - -'Oh, heavens!' said Olive, in a low voice like a whisper; 'are you a -man or a devil?' - -'A little of both, perhaps--I am what circumstances have made me.' - -'Daring wretch--oh, what wrong have I ever done you that you should -cross my path and agonise me thus?' - -Holcroft laughed; he knew that she had a more than handsome allowance -at her guardian's behest and her own bank account. He was without -remorse or pity, for cowardice and selfishness were alike the ruling -features of his character, and he thought to control the tongue and -action of Olive through her own pride and her love of Allan with an -eye to future monetary extortions. - -Pressing her left hand upon her heart, as if she felt--as no doubt -she did--a spasm of pain there, and, with her eyes almost closed, she -said, - -'In the name of mercy, give me back that photo!' - -'After I have had it so carefully improved as a work of art? No; no, -Miss Raymond,' said he, in his detestable sneering tone; 'but I shall -be content to forego my interest in the copyright for a certain -reasonable consideration.' - -'A consideration. I do not understand you, sir,' said Olive, -faintly, and clutching a table for support. - -'Plainly, then, I mean a cheque for three hundred--no, let me say -four hundred--pounds, and you had better be quick about it, as I have -no time to spare, and, truth to tell, have no desire to renew my -acquaintance with any of the Aberfeldie folks again.' - -'Four hundred pounds?' - -'That is the sum, Miss Raymond.' - -Like a blind person, she feebly and irresolutely seemed to grope with -her key about the lock of her davenport, and Holcroft said, - -'Permit me to assist you.' - -He unlocked it, and threw open the lid. Mechanically she seated -herself, and began to write, while conscious that this bantering -villain was still addressing her. - -'And so old Puddicombe has come to the front again,' said he. 'An -odd marriage it will be--his with Miss Graham--Brummagem allying -itself with the Middle Ages--the counting-house getting a line in -Burke's Peerage.' - -'There,' said she, handing him the cheque, which he received with a -low mocking bow, 'now give me the photo.' - -'Thanks, with pleasure. Perhaps you may wish to frame it. Now, -listen to me,' he said, through his set teeth, 'if you divulge a word -of this interview, or make known the power I have over you by means -of this photograph, "then and in that case," as I believe your -father's will is phrased, I shall at once introduce it to the British -public. I give you this copy for your four hundred pounds, but -retain the negative!' - -Then it was that, as he withdrew, a cry escaped from her overcharged -breast--the cry overheard by Allan, and she had only power left her -to conceal the odious photo in the breast of her dress, when she fell -fainting on the floor, where she was found. - -To destroy it was one of her first acts, when consciousness returned, -and she was alone; but what availed the destruction of this one, when -her tormentor possessed the power of producing others without limit? - -A great horror possessed her now--a dread and gloom came over her, -with a painful nervous terror--a kind of hunted emotion--a fear of -what might next ensue! - -Yet she took no one into her confidence, not even Allan--on her part -a fatal error. - -After all her past sweet intercourse with him, their delayed -marriage--delayed by the illness incident to Holcroft's outrage--and -his too probable speedy departure on foreign service, was she now to -harrow him up by a reference to her folly, her petulance, and her -silly degrading flirtation with this man, who now proved such a -pitiful, such an unfathomable villain! - -What if Allan should see suddenly that fatal photo in a shop window? -This possibility plainly stared her in the face; yet she was silent, -and believed that ere this issue came to pass, she was doomed to be -tortured and victimised by Holcroft again; and the thought, the fear -of this, gave her a kind of fever of the spirit, which made her quite -ill, and bewildered her friends. - -Money had evidently been given by her to Holcroft--no small sum too; -and for what purpose? Remembering his threat if she exposed his -rascality, her tongue was now tied by a most unwise terror. Ill and -harrassed, she remained much in her room and avoided society. - -Allan, as he said resentfully, failed 'to see the situation,' and in -a gust of pique and anger, feeling himself somewhat degraded by -Olive's bearing, resigned his extended leave and joined his regiment, -as Olive said, resolved to 'sulk in Edinburgh Castle, rather than -have an explanation,' rather unreasonably forgetting that she had -steadily refused to give one. - -She felt painfully that the mystery of the money given to Holcroft -was calculated to compromise her with her kindred; but what was that -when compared with the awful thundercloud which hung over her, if he -made the public use he threatened of the photo! - -Her soul died within her. Meanwhile Allan struggled hard to make -himself believe that he might yet be happy with Olive; that he had -perhaps no solid reason for being otherwise; but it would not do. - -'Hang it, what does all this new mystery mean?' he would say to -himself. 'We seem fated to misunderstand each other somehow. After -all, she seems to love her pride more than me, still!' - -And Olive knew that it was mingled pride and fear that had opened a -kind of chasm between her and Allan again; yet a little sense, a -little courage and candour, might have closed it speedily enough, and -smoothed away the anger the complication raised at times within her; -while to Allan the situation was certainly an intolerable one, and -Olive's silence or reticence made it all the more so. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -WEDDED. - -While baffled in her attempts to bring about an explanation between -Allan and Olive, and to smooth matters over with that wilful young -lady (as she deemed her) and her naturally irritated _fiancé_, Lady -Aberfeldie pushed on vigorously all the arrangements for the marriage -of Sir Paget and the ill-starred Eveline--a marriage for which there -seemed then no other reason than an avaricious desire of grand -settlements and so forth. - -All Olive's old pride and petulance (with much of irritation that was -new) seemed to have come back to her, and, until the matter was -cleared up regarding that mysterious visit of Holcroft to Maviswood, -Allan had ceased to speak of marriage, and thus her spirit took fire -at being doubted and humbled. - -She shrank, unwisely, from a simple confession that might have -obviated all this, and from revealing the shame and affront to which -this man possessed the power of exposing her. - -'I detest riddles, and care not to read them; but the mask she is -wearing--if a mask it be--may prove a costly one for herself and us -all,' thought Lord Aberfeldie and his son too. - -'Be content, Allan, to know that I gave that money--a trifle to -me--to Mr. Holcroft in the hope to save us all--especially -myself--from a probable public affront which might destroy me,' said -Olive on one occasion, her eyes flashing through her tears. - -'What mystery is this?--what can you have done? how be in his power? -The assertion is absurd!' - -'Allan, cannot you trust me?' she asked, fondly and sadly, yet -proudly. - -'I know not what to think, but the whole affair looks--looks to -me----' - -'How.' - -'Well, devilish queer,' said he, as he cut the matter short, and rode -away, on which Olive dried her tears, crested up her head, and looked -defiant. - -'If this tiresome couple, Olive and Allan, continue to pout and sulk -at each other,' said Lady Aberfeldie; 'and he should decline to marry -her, her money may be lost to us by her twenty-fifth birthday.' - -'Unless----' the lord twisted his moustache and paused. - -'Unless what?' - -'Allan gets himself killed in Egypt,' replied Lord Aberfeldie, grimly. - -'Good heavens, do not say such a thing, even in jest!' - -And now, perforce of their present situation, a change had come over -the two cousins, Olive and Eveline--they never read, studied, sung, -rode, or walked together, as they had been wont to do; a blight had -come over both their lives apparently. - -Eveline only felt a little at ease when Sir Paget was absent from -her, and even then she was pestered by his love-letters, which, like -those written usually by men of advanced years, were of a grotesquely -impassioned nature. 'Attachments at that age are deeper, and less -anxiety not to compromise oneself is shown and felt,' says an -essayist. 'After fifty, men are often wise enough to vote the -writing of love-letters a bore, but some carry on the practice to a -very advanced age. Their protestations are then ingeniously -flavoured with touches of the paternal, which sometimes entirely -mislead the unsophisticated recipients.' - -But the mere sight of Sir Paget's caligraphy, and of his heraldic -note-paper, having a shield with some mysterious design thereon, and -the motto _Puddicombe petit alta!_ (Puddicombe seeks lofty objects), -proved always enough for Eveline, who tossed it into the waste-paper -basket unread, but torn into minute fragments, while a sigh of -weariness and repugnance escaped her. - -Evan Cameron loved Allan Graham dearly as a friend, and had naturally -a desire to be on the best terms with him as the brother of the girl -to whom he had given all his heart. Thus, while meeting him daily on -parade and at mess, he was sorely puzzled to account for the change -he felt in Allan's manner to himself, as he knew not that the latter -resented the 'Mrs. Cameron' episode as an insult to Eveline, his -sister. - -'I presume you know that my sister is on the point of -marriage--indeed, that the day is fixed?' said Allan, rather grimly, -to him one day as he recalled the circumstance of how Evan greatly -admired, to say the least of it, Eveline, and how her heart had -responded thereto. - -Cameron made no reply, but a sudden pallor overspread his handsome, -bronzed face, and all his studied calmness forsook him, while the -memory of past hopes and joys shook his heart as if with a tempest of -remembrance; but, stooping and half turning away to conceal the -expression of his face, he attempted to light a cigar. - -'What a sly fellow--a cunning dog--you are!' said Allan, with -irritation of tone. - -'In what way do you mean, Allan?' asked Cameron. - -'Mean! How dare you ask, after your open admiration of my sister, -Miss Graham, in a man in your position?' - -Cameron mistook his meaning; but the mistake failed to rouse any -pride, as his heart was too crushed and sore just then. - -'Allan!' he exclaimed, as tears almost welled up in his honest eyes, -'I loved her--I love her still--God alone knows how well, how -desperately, and how hopelessly.' - -'Hopelessly indeed,' responded Allan, his cheek now aflame with -anger; 'and you dare to tell me this after all that we know of -yourself and Mrs. Cameron?' - -It was now Cameron's turn to look indignant and astonished; but in a -few words he explained all. - -'Poor Evan!' said Allan, as he wrung the hand of Cameron, whose head -sank forward, so much was he overcome by emotion; 'I am glad of this -explanation, but it comes too late--if indeed it could ever have -served any purpose so far as your hopes with Eveline are concerned. -In three days she is to be married--and now, let us talk of the -subject no more.' - -But for a time black fury gathered in the heart of Cameron at Sir -Paget Puddicombe, whose deductions, however, from all that he saw at -the railway station, were most natural. - -'In three days,' he muttered again and again, 'in three days, and she -will be lost to me for ever!' - -Eveline as yet was ignorant of her lover's purity and innocence, nor -would the knowledge of it have availed her much. There was a meek -abandonment of her own will--of her own judgment, and Lady Aberfeldie -caressed her more than she had ever done before, glad to find that -she had become--my lady cared not why or how--compliant at last. - -She seemed quite passive and supine--resigned, Olive phrased it--and -ready to do her mother's bidding, for Evan Cameron seemed to have -quite passed out of her life, though the name 'Alice' he had uttered -seemed to be ever in her ears. - -She heard her mother speaking, and felt her caresses, but her eyes -were suffused by a kind of mist. Yet more than once she had started -amid her apathy, and thought, 'Why am I still here--why don't I run -away to where they will never find me?' - -But she had no determining motive to decide her choice of place or -scheme of life, though she felt that ere long, when these last three -days were past, she would have to reconstruct her entire future, and -from that future her heart recoiled and shrank. Her temples throbbed -as she thought of this; her heart seemed alternately to thunder in -her breast, and then to become unnaturally still. - -Again and again her mother told her that she would be surrounded by -such wealth as falls to the lot of few; but she cared not for wealth, -nor would it ever remove her gloomy and bitter reflections, and at -the very name of her intended husband, though she evinced no emotion, -a secret and involuntary shudder came over her. - -Society was intolerable just then, and she had much of it at -Maviswood. How intolerable seemed lawn-tennis amid the bright -sunshine, the soft thud of the balls upon the racquets, as they were -shot over the nettings from court to court, the laughter of young and -sweet voices, and the cries ever and anon of 'fifteen,' 'thirty,' -'fault,' and so on, as the jovial game progressed; and with evening -came the inevitable dinner-party, and at night the dance. - -Allan, fearing to lacerate his sister's heart, knew not how to -undeceive her in the matter of Cameron's supposed duplicity, though -the truth or falsehood thereof could not affect her fate or her -relations with Sir Paget now; but the true story escaped Carslogie -quite casually when in conversation with Olive, who in due time -related it to Eveline, in whose breast it created some very mingled -emotions. - -So Evan was innocent, while she had been feeling in her heart all the -passion and pain--yea, a sentiment of vengeance--which women will -feel, when they believe they have been loving unworthily. - -Early on her marriage morning she left her bed to think over all -this. Wrapped in a snow-white _peignoir_ (or dressing-robe), with -all her undressed hair floating about her shoulders and blown back by -the warm summer breeze, she sat at the open window of her room, and -looked dreamily out with sad, sad eyes on the sunny landscape and the -lovely hills all steeped in golden haze. - -How changed seemed its beauty now, and how she longed to be away from -it--to be dead, in fact! Yet she was at an age when even to live, -ought to be in itself a joy. - -The fragrance of the dewy summer morning seemed to fill the outer -world, and amid the intense stillness she heard only the voices of a -lark high in the air and of a cushat dove in the coppice. - -Her marriage morning--what a morning of woe to her! Her cheeks were -pale--very, very pale; but with her parted scarlet lips, and her -tangled waves of rich brown hair, she was beautiful as ever. - -The knowledge that her lover had not deceived her, but was true, -roused her for a time, and filled her soul with a tempest of -unexpected sorrow, compunction, and joy--sorrow that she had wronged -him, compunction for the cruel mode in which she had treated him, and -joy that his honour was unstained, and that he still was true; but -oh! what must he think of her? - -Burying her face in her tremulous white hands, she wept like a -child---wept as we are told 'only women weep when their hearts break -over the grave of a dead love,' and threw herself across her bed. - -'God forgive me--God forgive me, and bless and comfort you, my love,' -she murmured. 'Oh, Evan, I have wronged you--wronged you; but what -does it avail us after all--after all?' - -And she lay there crouched and gathered in a heap, as it were, till -Olive and others who were to be her bridesmaids roused her and lifted -her up and summoned Clairette. - -So her marriage-day had come, and, unless she fell ill or died, the -ceremony was to go inexorably on. - -Olive was far from well; every day she expected to hear of Holcroft's -photo being seen; her sole protection against that catastrophe as -yet, was the fear that ere it came to pass, he would seek her -presence at least once again, on an errand of extortion. But ill or -well, she had to bear her part in the ceremony as a bridesmaid, and a -charming one she looked. - -Allan, of course, was there too, but not as groomsman--a 'fogie' -friend of Sir Paget officiated in that capacity, and more than once -did the head of the latter jerk about in a way that was quite -alarming as he entered the church, which was _en fête_ for the -occasion. - -To the tortured mind of his bride, she thought it would be a relief -when the ceremony was over, and the phantasmagoria that seemed to -surround her had all passed away. 'Is not certainty better than -suspense?' asks Rhoda Broughton; 'night better than twilight? despair -than the sickly flicker of an extinguishing hope?' - -'In marrying in this compulsory fashion, I do this poor man a great -wrong,' thought Eveline, 'and condemn myself to a life-long sorrow.' - -And amid the sacrifice Lady Aberfeldie, calm and aristocratic, stood -with a great air of dignity and grace peculiarly her own. - -'She will love Sir Paget in time, if love is necessary,' she was -thinking; 'he is so good, so generous, and _so_ rich.' - -So rich--yes, with her--there lay the magnet and the secret of it all! - -The bridesmaids, all handsome girls, were uniformly costumed; among -them amber-haired Ruby Logan, quite jubilant with reviving hopes of -Allan. - -Eveline's cold and now white lips murmured almost inaudibly the words -she was bidden to say--the few but terrible words that made her a -wedded wife--while her pallid face was but half seen amid the bridal -veil, that seemed to float like filmy mist around her. Allan alone, -who knew the real secret of her heart, looked pityingly, darkly, and -gravely on, for it was a union of which--however his father and -mother desired it--he did not approve. - -For a time Eveline had actually schooled herself to think that -marriage would give her a species of vengeance on the man who, she -thought, had wronged and oppressed her. But now, oh, heaven! she -loved the lost one more than ever, while death alone could unforge -the fetters her lips were riveting. - -Was it ominous of evil that the ring dropped from her wedding finger -as Sir Paget placed it there? - -At last all was over. The great organ pealed forth the -wedding-march. The bells rang joyously in the great spire overhead, -and she was led forth by Sir Paget, leaning on his arm, a wedded wife. - -So time would pass on--days dawn and nights close; the moon would -shine amid the fleecy clouds on the quiet pastoral hills, on the -great castellated mass of Dundargue, the woods and waters of her old -home; but never would she be as she had been--as a happy, thoughtless -girl--the Eveline Graham of the past years; never more could joy be -hers, or would she know again the love she had lost, the tenderness -she had tasted; and times there were when, amid her general passive -appearance of numbness and indifference, hot, scorching tears of -utter despair escaped her, and a passionate longing seized her to -take to flight, whither she knew not, and to rend asunder the meshes -of the marriage net that bound her now; and in this frame of mind she -departed on her honeymoon! - -On that morning, there lingered long on one of the western batteries -of the old castle an officer who--if he was noticed at all--seemed to -be solely intent on enjoying a cigar, and who seemed to avoid the -society of all. - -This was poor Evan Cameron, listening to the wedding bells in the -distant spire, and well he knew for what a tragedy they were ringing; -and, each time their clangour came upon the wind, they seemed to find -an echo in his heart. - -So she was married at last, and more than ever lost to him! - -Cards came to him in due course, and he tore them into minute -fragments. - -Evan did all his regimental duties and daily work like a man--but as -one in a dream--all that was required of him, with more than ever, if -possible, strict punctilio; yet he felt himself a mere machine, -without heart or soul; and had only one longing, for the time when he -might turn his back upon his native country, and find himself face to -face with the enemy, no matter who, or where, that enemy might be. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -MISTRUST. - -'Now that dear Eveline is off our hands,' said Lady Aberfeldie, 'I -cannot help thinking seriously of Allan's affairs and those of Olive, -and really some serious advice should be given to the foolish couple. -Could not you----' - -'No,' interrupted her husband; 'I wash my hands of lovers and their -piques and plans. You have managed the matter of Eveline and Sir -Paget--try your skill once more.' - -'Neither Allan nor Olive is so compliant as poor Eveline.' - -'No--poor Eveline indeed!' - -'You think of her marriage thus, now?' - -'Well, there is no denying it is rather a January-and-May style of -thing; but let us not speak of it.' - -Considering that her husband had from the first given his full assent -to the whole transaction, Lady Aberfeldie could not help glancing at -him rather reproachfully, but she only said, - -'Olive has, of course, many admirers; but the rumour of her -engagement to Allan keeps them all at a distance.' - -'Poor Olive! Her fortune is almost a misfortune to her.' - -'Why?' - -'She imagines it to be the attraction of everyone, rather than her -own beauty.' - -'And once she conceived it to be the attraction of Allan; but she -knows better now--that he loves, or loved, her for herself alone.' - -'She has already had two peers and a baronet in her train, all drawn -thither, I fear, by her money-bags alone, and young Carslogie of Ours -seemed desperately smitten, too.' - -'Ours?' - -'Well, I always think of the Black Watch as 'Ours'--it is force of -habit--a good-looking fellow, well-born, well-bred, with plenty of -money.' - -'Allan is his equal in all these and more; but what he and she mean -by dallying and delaying as they do, I cannot conceive.' - -Allan had looked upon Olive at the recent marriage in her striking -costume as a bridesmaid, and thought she had never appeared to -greater advantage. - -Why should she not have figured there as a bride too? What was the -secret spring of this doubt and mistrust that had come between them -again, and which she shrank from attempting to explain? - -To do her justice, she was often on the point of doing so; but a -sentiment of miserable fear of what Allan might do, think, or say, if -made aware of the deep affront Holcroft was capable of inflicting -upon his future wife, tied her tongue. - -Better would it have been a thousand times had she trusted to Allan -fully and implicitly, and to the means he might put in force to -procure or purchase the silence for ever of such a reptile as her -tormentor. - -The knowledge in the minds of both, that a time for separation must -inevitably come soon now, if all the rumours of war proved true, -softened their emotions, and drew the cousins towards each other -again. - -The intercourse between them had, as of old, its usual charm, but was -strange and constrained, for as Allan did not attempt again the -_rôle_ of lover, but seemed to 'bide his time,' Olive felt her pride -alarmed, and would often reply to him coldly, with a straightening of -her slim form, and a cresting up of her graceful neck and handsome -head. - -Time passed on; she heard nothing of Hawke Holcroft or his threats, -and the courage of Olive rose; but it was awful to think of her name -being at the mercy of such a creature, even if she were married! - -Once the love that was really smouldering in the hearts of both -nearly burst into a flame again. - -Olive was seated in the garden at Maviswood so deeply lost in thought -that she was unaware of Allan's approach until he overhung the rustic -sofa she occupied. - -'A penny for your thoughts, Olive,' said he. - -'The sum usually offered for what might prove a perilous secret to -know.' - -'Well?' - -'My thoughts were of many things till your voice scattered them,' -said she, twirling her sunshade on her shoulder. - -'I was in hope they were of--me.' - -Olive only smiled, and remained silent, while he looked into her eyes -with a curiously mingled expression, which seemed to be both -imploring and commanding, but she only said, - -'They were not of you--why should they be?' - -Allan drew back a pace, with a cloudy brow. - -'Forgive my being playful for a moment, Olive--I shall never in this -way offend you again.' - -She gave him a sweet and deprecating, almost an entreating, glance; -but Allan did not perceive it; his face was turned angrily and sadly -from her, so her pique--ever so ready--became roused. - -'Olive,' said Allan, after a pause, 'love should always be stronger -than pride.' - -'Of course--when love exists,' she replied, turning a shoulder from -him. - -'And with you, Olive, do not let it stand between us as before. If -your father's will is again the cause, let me tell you once more that -I refuse to have any share in that lunatic arrangement, and will not -marry you on any such conditions.' - -'Who is thinking or talking of marriage?' said she, sarcastically, -yet making an effort to restrain her tears; 'moreover, I fear that as -a husband you would be very tyrannical and cruel.' - -'My character in the present and the past does not bear out this, I -think.' - -'Suspicious, then?' - -'Not without extreme and just reason,' replied Allan, as his mind -flashed back to the Holcroft episode. - -She strove to glance at him defiantly, but failing, smiled, though -his handsome face had in it an expression of sorrow and anger. - -'Ere a month be past, Olive, an Egyptian bullet may make you every -way a free woman, so far as regards your father's will.' - -'I do not wish to be free from it,' she was on the point of saying -passionately, but controlled her speech and -remained--unwisely--silent. - -Allan regarded her wistfully. - -'Are injudicious reticence and a little aversion the best beginning -of a true love?' he asked. - -'Perhaps--I am no casuist,' said she, tapping the ground with a -pretty little foot impatiently. - -Lovely, pouting, and wistful, her face was now turned to his with a -mixture of petulance and shy reproach as she thought, - -'Oh, why does he not take me in his arms, and kiss and make a fuss -with me as he used to do.' - -But, repelled by her curious manner, Allan had no intention of doing -any such thing, and thought her a curious enigma. So thus the chance -of a complete reunion ended, and ere long the luckless Olive was to -have cause for repenting most bitterly her lack of candour and -perfect trust, and the force of the overweening pride which -engendered mistrust in one who loved her so well. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -THE BLACK WATCH. - -War with Egypt had been declared, and in the Castle of Edinburgh, as -in every other fortress and barrack in the British Isles, the notes -of preparation were sounding, and the Black Watch, ever so glorious -in the annals of our army, was among the regiments bound for the land -where, eighty years before, it had gathered such a crop of laurels -under the gallant Abercrombie, in conflict, not against a feeble -horde of Egyptians, but when encountering forty thousand of the -veteran infantry of France. - -From that day in the October of 1739 when the companies of _Freicudan -Dhu_, or Black Watch (so called from their sombre green tartans), -drawn from the Munroes of Ross, the Grants of Strathspey, and the -Campbells of Lochnelland Carrick, were first enrolled as a regiment -on the Birks of Aberfeldie, near the southern bank of the Tay, by the -gallant old Earl of Crawford, the 42nd has been second to none in -peace and war, and its very name and number are rendered dear to the -people of Scotland by innumerable ties of friendship and clanship, by -traditions and glorious exploits in battle. - -In almost everything that has added strength or brilliance to the -British Empire the regiment has borne a leading part, and to attempt -to trace its annals would be to write the history of our wars since -the days of the second George. - -Suffice it that the second year after the companies were constituted -a regiment, saw them fighting for the House of Austria against France -and Bavaria, and covering the rear of that British army which was -hurled from the heights of Fontenoy by the bayonets of the Irish -Brigades, and where, we are told, 'the gallantry of Sir Robert Munroe -of 'the gallantry of Sir Robert Munroe of Culcairn and his -Highlanders was the theme of admiration through all Britain.' - -So it was with them in the old Flanders war, till 1758 saw them -attacking Ticonderoga in America, where, rushing from amid the -Reserve, where they disdained to linger, they hewed down the dense -abatis with their claymores, and, storming the breastworks, 'climbing -up one another's shoulders, and placing their feet in the holes made -in the face of the works by their swords and bayonets, no ladders -having been provided,' exposed the while to a dreadful fire of cannon -and musketry, under which six hundred and forty-seven of them fell; -and hence a cry for vengeance went through the country of the clans, -procuring so many recruits, and another battalion was formed, and -fresh glories were won in the West India Isles, where, at Martinique -and by the walls of the Moro, their pipes sent up the notes of -victory. - -In the fatal strife of the American revolt they were ever in the van, -and the first years of the present century saw their tartans waving -darkly amid the battle-smoke of Aboukir, under the shadow of Pompey's -Pillar, and on the plains of Alexandria, where they cut to pieces the -French Invincibles, slew six hundred and fifty of them, captured -their colours, which were delivered to Major Stirling, together with -the cannon they had also seized; and ere long the mosques and towers -of Grand Cairo echoed to their martial music. - -Who can record the brilliance of their valour in the long and -glorious war of the Peninsula--that war of victories, which began on -the banks of the Douro and continued to the hill of Toulouse? And -anon, their never-to-be-forgotten prowess on the plains of Waterloo, -when, under Macara, they formed the flower of Picton's superb -division, and where, with the Greys and Gordon Highlanders, they sent -up the cry which still finds echo in every Scottish heart, the -_cri-de-guerre_ of 'Scotland for ever!' while plunging into those -mighty French columns, which rolled away before their bayonets like -smoke before the wind. - -There their total casualties were two hundred and ninety-seven of all -ranks. - -'They fought like heroes, and like heroes fell--an honour to the -country,' to quote the War Office Record, page 145. 'On many a -Highland hill, and through many a Lowland valley, long will the deeds -of these brave men be fondly remembered and their fate deeply -deplored. Never did a finer body of men take the field; never did -men march to battle that were destined to perform such services to -their country, and to obtain such immortal renown.' - -But equal renown did their services win on the banks of the Alma, -when old Colin Campbell led them into action, exclaiming, - -'Now, men, the whole army is watching us; make me proud of my -Highland Brigade!' - -And reason indeed had that grand old soldier to be proud of his lads -in the kilt, as they swept up the green hillsides to glory. 'The -ground they had to ascend,' says an eye-witness, the author of -'Eothen,' 'was a good deal more steep and broken than the slope -beneath the redoubt. In the land where those Scots were bred, there -are shadows of sailing clouds shimmering up the mountain side, and -their paths are rugged and steep, yet their course is smooth, easy, -and swift. Smoothly, easily, and swiftly the Black Watch seemed to -glide up the hill. A few minutes before their tartans ranged dark in -the valley; now their plumes were on the crest.' - -Into the dense grey masses of the Kazan column, over which towered -the miraculous figure of St. Sergius, their steady volley swept like -a sheet of lead; anon their line of bayonets was flashing to the -charge like a hedge of steel, and a wail of despair broke from the -Muscovites, who, crying that 'the Angel of Death had come,' threw -away all that might impede their speed and fled. - -'Then,' says the brilliant author we have quoted, 'rose the cheers of -the Highland Brigade. Along the Kourgané slopes, and thence west -almost home to the causeway, the hillsides were made to resound with -that joyous and assuring cry, which is the natural utterance of a -northern people so long as it is warlike and free.' - -Their furious onset struck terror to many an Indian heart during the -dark years of the Sepoy revolt, and like sweetest music their pipes -were heard by that desperate and despairing band who fought for their -wives and children in beleaguered Lucknow; and as, of course, the old -Black Watch must be in everything, they bore their share in the -conquest of Coomassie, and were the first men in the sable city, as -their pipes announced to the army of Wolseley. - -While on this subject, we cannot help quoting a Frenchman's estimate -of the Scottish troops. In the _Moniteur de Soir_ for 1868, a writer -says, - -'The Scottish soldiers form without distinction the cream of the -British army, and the Highlander is the prototype of the excellent -soldier. He has all the requisite qualities without one defect. -Unluckily for Great Britain, the population of Scotland is not -numerous. Saving, it is true, to the point of putting by penny after -penny, the Scotsman, for all that, is honest, steadfast, and amiable -in his intercourse with others, enthusiastic and proud, most -chivalrous when the question is about shedding his blood. The old -traditions of clanship subsist, each company is grouped round an -illustrious name, and all and every man is sure to be the captain's -cousin. The Highlanders have a strange sort of bravery, which -partakes of French fire and English phlegm. They rush with -impetuosity, they charge with vigour, but are not hurried away by -anger. In the very hottest of an attack, a simple order suffices to -stop them. Formed in square, you would take them for Englishmen, but -in the bayonet charge you would swear they were French. For the rest -they are of Celtic origin, and the blood of our fathers flows in -their veins. In the eyes of the Turk, the Scots have one enormous -fault--that of showing their bare legs. In _our_ eyes they have but -one defect, but still excessively annoying--their depraved taste for -the screaming of the bagpipes. We know that the Highlanders would -not get under fire (with _élan_) without being excited by their -national airs being played on this discordant instrument. One of -their generals having put down this piercing music, they attacked the -enemy so languidly that the bagpipes had to be restored to them, and -then they took the position. In a word, we repeat that the Scots are -magnificent soldiers.' - -We may smile at the Frenchman's idea of the pipes, for as the old -piper said of Count Flauhault when he expressed his disgust thereat, -'Maybe she heard owre muckle o' them at Waterloo.' - -And now once again the Black Watch were going to the land of the sun -and the desert, where Abercrombie received his death-wound while -calling to them in the charge, 'My brave Highlanders, remember your -country--remember your forefathers!' And these glories, with all -'the stirring memories of a thousand years,' were not forgotten on -that day in the August of 1882 when, under the scion of a gallant -house, Cluny the younger, the regiment received its orders of -readiness and began to prepare for its departure from the Castle of -Edinburgh, while a mighty throb seemed to pervade the heart of the -city as its hour of departure approached. - -All in its ranks, of course, had friends whom they sorrowed to -leave--all save poor Evan Cameron; and all were impatient and full of -ardour to join in the coming strife; but none, perhaps, were more -impatient than he, for he had to seek forgetfulness--oblivion from -his own thoughts--a refuge from his futile regrets--among other -scenes for the lost love of one who could never be more to him than a -tender memory now. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -IN THE BELVIDERE. - -Shakespeare tells us that men have died and worms have eaten them, -but not for love. So Evan Cameron did not die, nor had he any -thoughts of dying; but it seemed to his young and enthusiastic heart -just then that all which made life worth living for, and all its -fulness, splendour, and joy, were over and done with for him. - -Of the movements of the Aberfeldie family he knew nothing at that -time. - -Allan was again on leave, and was to join the regiment on the day of -its embarkation in England. - -Evan had a longing to see the place where he had last seen Eveline, -as her lover, at Maviswood. Memories of the past days at Dundargue -came vividly upon him now--of the times when they had wandered in the -leafy woods near the old castle, talking sweet nonsense, with happy -hearts and laughter that came so readily; when eye spoke to eye and -hand thrilled when it touched hand with lingering pressure, and -glances were exchanged that, if they meant anything, meant love. - -Lord Aberfeldie had been ever kind to him, and a friend of his -father; he thought he would like to press the good peer's hand once -more before he departed, for the regiment was going far away, to a -land from whence he might never return; so, as Evan was an impulsive -young fellow, he repaired at once to Maviswood. - -He found Mr. Tappleton, the old family butler, airing his figure at -the front door when he approached. - -Lord Aberfeldie, he was informed, was in London--his lordship was -residing with Miss Raymond at Southsea, and Sir Paget was not at home. - -'Sir Paget--is he living here?' asked Cameron, with a start. - -'Yes, sir, for a few days.' - -'And Lady--Lady----' He paused, unable to pronounce the name. - -'Is also here,' replied Mr. Tappleton, knowing instantly who he -meant; 'but she is out somewhere walking in the grounds.' - -Evan gave the butler a couple of cards and turned away. He felt -quite startled to find that Sir Paget and his bride were resident at -Maviswood, and thought that he could not get away from the vicinity -of the house too soon. - -Proceeding down the avenue, he passed a narrow, diverging path -between high old holly-hedges, the vista of which was closed by a -belvidere, or species of pillared alcove, built upon a grassy knoll, -and therein, as if in a shrine, stood Eveline. - -To pass was impossible. For a moment he stood rooted to the spot, -and then, as one in a dream, approached her. To meet her face to -face thus, was like something of a dreadful shock to both now. - -Eveline was deadly pale and trembling, while her graceful figure -looked very slight and girlish in her fresh cambric costume and gipsy -hat. - -At the very moment of their meeting there, her mind had been full of -him. - -How had poor Evan borne the tidings of her marriage, and with it the -total destruction of their mutual wishes?--mutual hopes they had none. - -She had often pondered on this, and wondered how he had heard it, who -had told him of it, or if he had seen it in the papers, and how he -looked when the sad tidings came. Of the cruel mockery of sending -him wedding-cards she knew nothing. Was he striving to forget er? -perhaps learning to hate her--oh, not that!--to despise her? nor -that, if he knew all. - -But they were nothing to each other now, and never could be anything -more. - -Anon would come other thoughts that were perilous to a young and -enthusiastic girl. - -Evan Cameron had given himself to her with all his heart, and with -all his soul, and he loved her with all the strength of both; and -now--now, with another man's wedding-ring upon her finger, she felt -unprepared to relinquish that love, for she could not doubt that it -must still exist, though he had been cruelly and selfishly treated. - -And while all these thoughts had been coursing through her brain he -came suddenly before her. - -'I pray that he may soon forget me--poor Evan!' had been her frequent -thought. 'Why should he think of me more, when he knows of my -marriage, and must deem me a pitiful creature.' - -Each caught their breath, each clasped their hands as if in mute -misery, and the eyes of both were strained, as if the pain of -recognition was mingled with the peril of the situation. - -Evan thought how pale and transfigured looked the soft face of his -lost love! - -'I knew not that you where here--I came to visit your father--we -march tomorrow--and--and----' - -Evan paused breathlessly, though his voice seemed to thrill with -passion, and his lips, when they touched her hands--even the hand -with the obnoxious wedding-hoop--trembled and quivered like those of -a girl. - -'Evan,' she said, softly, 'Evan!' - -'My darling--my lost darling!' broke from his lips, as he clasped her -in his arms, and her slender fingers softly and tremulously caressed -his dark and closely-curling hair with something that was almost -motherly, or sisterly, in the intensity of its tenderness. - -'Oh, Evan,' she whispered, 'may God watch over you, spare you, -protect you, and give you some other heart to make you happy.' - -It was some solace to Evan's wounded spirit that she had been in a -manner--apart from her temporary doubt of himself--forced into her -marriage; that her own free will, poor girl, had no hand in the -matter. - -Clasped to his heart, hers was beating for some moments 'with the -wild music of recovered joy, her great dread silenced by her greater -passion.' - -But to what end was it all? - -'This is madness!' exclaimed Evan, as they stood for a minute, hand -clasped in hand, and gazing into each other's eyes. - -'Madness indeed!' moaned Eveline. - -'I am going far away, my darling, and shall never see you again. -That I may find a grave in Egypt is the kindest wish you can have for -me; and that you will never think but kindly of me in the time to -come, is my only and my dearest hope now.' - -She was in his arms again--the girl, every tress of whose -brown-golden hair was dear to him--every expression of whose eyes and -lips, every tone of whose voice, every charm and grace of whose face -and form were graven on his inner heart; but what availed all that -now? - -'You know all now--my secret, and that I was not false to you, -Eveline?' said he. - -'All,' she replied, hollowly. - -'Poor Alice could not come to my quarters in the Castle, consequently -I had to meet her somewhere--where you saw us. Poor little soul, she -had no one to trust, to--to confide in, save me.' - -'And now----' - -'She has gone back to her husband--back to my brother in India.' - -'Desperate with the idea that you, Evan, had deceived me, I was -blind--careless--passive in their hands, and heedless what became of -me; and Sir Paget bought me of them--bought me of papa and mamma--as -a slave who loathes her buyers and her slavery!' exclaimed Eveline, -wildly. - -'Such a fate, my darling!' - -'Such a fate, indeed!' she whispered through her set teeth. 'But we -must part now,' she added, but without withdrawing her hands from his -firm clasp. - -'A parting bitter as death, Eveline.' - -'And as hopeless,' she said, now sobbing heavily. - -'Yet, with all its bitterness, this has been a great, an unexpected -joy to see you here, to embrace you once again.' - -Of one grim fact they could not be oblivious. She was another man's -wife, and he had to tear himself away; to lose for ever the sight of -that sweet, afflicted face, the tones of that beloved voice, to long -again for both, with eager eyes and ears, in the time that was to -come. - -'Though parted thus, Eveline, you will think of me sometimes--you -will remember?' - -'For ever and for ever, while my miserable life lasts, Evan.' - -'My poor darling! To remember me, to be constant to me in memory, -while another's wife.' - -'I cannot realise that even now, still less what my life will be in -the future, with you not in it.' - -A long, clinging kiss and he was gone, while Eveline sank down on the -stone seat within the belvidere in a state of semi-consciousness, in -which she was discovered by Sir Paget. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THE ROUTE. - -Few scenes are more stirring than the departure of a regiment for the -seat of war, in Scotland, perhaps, more than anywhere else, when it -is the departure of a national regiment endeared to the people by -historical and warlike associations, combined with those of clanship -and kindred. - -The last toast at the mess, ere it was broken up, was '_Tir nam Bean, -nan Glean, s nan Gaisgaich_;' and now, till more peaceful times, its -magnificent and trophied mess-plate was stored away, among it that -gigantic silver tripod, with its fluted bowl, weighing eighteen -hundred ounces, bearing, with other mottoes, these:--_Na Tir chaisin -Buardh son Eiphart_ 21 _Mar,_ 1801' and--'_O'Chummin Gaidhculach d' -on Freicudan Dhu, na_ 42 _Regiment_.' - -About seven in the morning the pipers of the Black Watch blew the -gathering, waking the echoes of that grand old fortress, which is the -focus of so much Scottish history, and from the gates of which by -sword or spear the tide of war was so often rolled back in the stormy -days of old; and now the sound of the pipes found a deeper echo in -the hearts of the thousands who were mustering in the streets below -to bid the regiment farewell, and wish it God-speed in the land it -was going to. - -The August morning was a lovely one, and the shadows formed by the -golden sunshine lay purple and deep in the glens of the Pentlands, -and in the valleys and hollows spanned by the bridges of the city and -overlooked by the towering edifices of its terraced streets, amid -which rose every spire and pinnacle tipped with ruddy splendour. - -The woods and gardens were still in all their summer beauty and -greenery, and the corn-fields in the distance were ripe with golden -grain over all the sun-lighted landscape. Ere that corn was all -gathered, many of those who came gaily forth, mustering to the sound -of the pipes, were to find their graves in the sand of the Egyptian -desert, where the Black Watch had gathered so many laurels in the -wars of other years. - -All the city was astir as it had never been since the King's Own left -the same fortress for the shores of the Crimea, and the hum of the -gathering thousands filled the clear air of the dewy morning. - -Cluny trusted in his men, and thus, on this conspicuous morning, no -man failed him, and no man was absent from his place in the ranks. -The bustle of departure was past; stores had been issued; the grey -tropical helmet, with a little crimson hackle worn on the left side, -was for a time to supersede the graceful bonnet with its black -plumes; valises and haversacks had been packed; rifles and bayonets -inspected; the baggage selected and forwarded; and nothing remained -now but to march, after sixteen months' residence in the city of the -Stuarts. - -Cluny had kindly given ample opportunities to his men to take leave -of their friends, and it was only for a short time before their -departure, that the great palisaded barriers of the Castle were -closed at the _tête-du-pont_ against all comers, and the human surge -that pressed against them. - -At last the pipes were heard echoing under that deep archway through -which millions of armed men have marched; the brass drums rang under -the grim ports of the Half-Moon Battery; the barriers were rolled -back, and, with dragoons clearing the way, the Black Watch, in their -fighting kits, with grey helmets, white jackets, and dark-green -tartans, their colours cased, and all their bayonets glittering in -the sun like a rippling stream of steel, came marching down the -slope, while cheers rent the air, cheers and shouts, though doubtless -many a heavy heart was there, for wives and sweethearts, children and -parents, alike were being left behind by those on whose faces they -might never look again. - -Each man had on his back a valise, tin canteen, and great-coat; his -haversack and water-bottle were slung, and attached to a lanyard at -his neck, each carried a large knife--like the genuine jockteleg of -the days of old--and right service-like and purpose-like they all -looked. - -The officers, who were in blue patrol jackets, with kilt, claymore, -and dirk, carried knives of the same kind, together with a haversack, -field-glass, and water-bottle. - -Dense were the crowds occupying every street, every window and -balcony, every coign of vantage, and the whole area through which the -regiment marched to the sound of its national and martial music -seemed instinct with life, ardour, and enthusiasm. - -Many veterans were in the ranks of the regiment--men who had served -in Ashanti, and not a few who, as Albany Highlanders, had marched to -Candahar and fought in Afghanistan. Their colonel--Cluny the -younger, son of that venerable Cluny who is chief of the Macphersons -or Clanvurich (the second tribe of the great Clan Chattan), and was -once a Black Watchman--rode at their head, and near him marched his -favourite sergeant-major, MacNeil, a tall, stately, and tried -soldier, who, though he knew not the fate before him, when the hour -came, had no fear of facing death, as became one of the Freicudan Dhu. - -Evan Cameron, as he marched on, claymore in hand, had a shrewd idea -that among the many there whose tender hearts were filled with pity -and enthusiasm, would be one who was secretly and inexpressibly dear -to himself; and yet, though a kind of mortal pain was in his breast, -his heart, despite it all, beat responsive to the cadence of the old -familiar march--the regimental quick-step--the same air to which he -had so often trod in past times and in other lands; and now, as one -in a dream, he saw the seething crowds, the forest of waving hats and -handkerchiefs, and all the glorious view on which he was probably -looking for the last time--the noble line of Princes Street, steeped -in the morning sun, the Calton Hill with its line of towers and -battlements, its temples, great stone obelisk, and reproduction of -the classic Parthenon of Minerva, Arthur's Seat, and the Craigs, and -the old city with its ten-storey houses--each a stone record of the -historic past. - -He was suddenly roused on seeing Carslogie playfully kiss the basket -hilt of his claymore, and wave his hand to a young lady who sat by -the side of an elderly gentleman in an open barouche. - -She was closely veiled, but Evan's heart leaped in his breast when he -recognised Eveline--Eveline by the side of Sir Paget, who waved his -hat occasionally, and jerked his bald head about as usual. - -'Why was such a girl as that, Allan Graham's sister, sacrificed to -that old devil of a fogie?' asked one of the Black Watch of -Carslogie, a high-spirited young fellow, who thought it very nice to -be in the 42nd, but very nasty to be also in debt, and was now right -glad to find himself _en route_ for Egypt. - -'Why, indeed? you may well ask,' he replied; 'simply because her -father is one of the upper ten, and, like all that lot, selfish to -the backbone.' - -And Cameron's heart endorsed his answer to the full. - -Eveline saw him, and for a moment--but a moment only--raised her, -veil. - -The tale of all she had endured was written in the wistful and -mournful expression of her soft hazel eyes, and all who knew her now -remarked that, though she sometimes smiled, she never laughed. - -She felt her lips quiver and the lines of them tighten, for we may -control deep emotion in the eyes, but on the mouth, never. - -Her whole heart and soul were concentrated in the effort to appear -calm and look on, though her eyes were dim with the tears in which -she feared just then to indulge. - -'Oh, my darling!' she whispered to herself, again and again, but -voicelessly, in her heart. 'My dear love--my brave Evan--I shall -never see you again!' - -Surreptitiously she concealed her tear-soaked handkerchief in her -pocket, and drew forth another--a fresh one redolent of -eau-de-Cologne. Quickly though she did it, Sir Paget saw the act, -drew his own conclusions therefrom, and thought himself an ass for -having accorded her permission to see the Black Watch depart. - -Their recent brief meeting--the memory of the passionate kisses that -should never have been given or taken--added now to the supremeness -of the present moment. - -He only appeared to bow to her; but as he gazed with eyes of -passionate yearning on her flower-like face, the lips he had kissed -so often, the eyes that had so often looked with love into his, and -did so now, his heart filled with a wild and desperate longing to -take her to his breast and cover her face with kisses again. - -But the drums beat, the pipes played loud and high, the crowds -cheered, and the forward march went ruthlessly on. - -All this fuss of Eveline's, thought Sir Paget, could not be merely -for the departure of her brother's regiment! - -At last to Eveline's ears the sound of pipe and drum died away in the -distance as the barouche was driven homeward to Maviswood; but now -the despair in her face and attitude was too palpable not to attract -the attention of Sir Paget, who jerked his face forward quite close -to hers and regarded her gloomily and in silence. - -In all that followed now, Evan Cameron seemed to act mechanically, -and to do that which was his duty by mere force of habit, as the -regiment marched into the resounding railway station, where he saw -the men of his company told-off to compartments; saw the sergeants -marking on the footboard of the carriages with chalk the letter of -the company; saw the men take off their valises; and ere long the -swift special train was sweeping through the dark tunnel that pierces -the rocky bowels of Calton Hill, and the Black Watch were fairly off -for Egypt again. - -How to bear his loss in the long years that were to come, if the -fortune of war spared him, was the thought that tortured most the -mind of Cameron then, and gave him an emotion of despair. - -He remembered the fixed and agonised gaze of Eveline; he remembered, -too, the manner in which her spouse had looked grimly on, with an -angry, yet not unsatisfied, jerk of the head, as he, no doubt, was -thinking they 'had seen the last of Evan Cameron.' - -The future! All that was vague to the latter indeed. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -'IDIOTS ONLY WILL BE COZENED TWICE.' - -It was on an August evening--the sun had not set, but the sky was -cloudy and gloomy; the wind was high, and a heavy sea was on at -Spithead, and the conservatory in which Olive was lingering and -selecting a button-hole of violets and maiden-hair fern for Allan was -so dark already that the lamps were lighted in it. She was dressed -for a dinner-party, and was looking charming--her best and -brightest--as she sang softly to herself and wandered from one shelf -of potted flowers to another, when Allan suddenly joined her, with an -expression in his face that was full of mingled sadness and -excitement, and with a telegram in his hand. - -'Allan, what has happened?' she asked, changing colour, and with dire -forebodings in her heart. - -He caught her hands in his and tried to smile. - -'Tell me, why are you so sad?' she asked again. - -'Darling,' said he, as he drew her to his breast, 'compose yourself; -I have just had great news--bad news you will deem them--to tell you.' - -From these few speeches it may be gathered that the cloud that -hovered between this pair of lovers had passed away, and that -sunshine had come again. - -They were at Puddicombe House, a villa of Sir Paget's, which he had -lent to Lord Aberfeldie, and from the windows of which, as it -overlooked Stokes Bay and Spithead from the Clarence Parade at -Southsea, they could daily see the departure of great white -'troopers,' crowded with soldiers--Highlanders, Rifles, and -Marines--steaming past the long line of the sea-wall (with all its -naval trophies and monuments) _en route_ for the shores of Egypt. - -There, too, were in view the three forts in the Channel, with -Puckpool Battery at Spring Yale, which, with the other in a line on -the mainland, would effectually bar an enemy's ship from reaching -Portsmouth Harbour. Ponderous indeed are these forts--one in -particular, a mass of circular masonry, girt by a black belt of iron -armour, pierced with port-holes, through which the great guns of 'the -period' may spit out shot and shell; and beyond lies the peaceful -Isle of Wight--a charming stretch of sloping land, wooded to the -water's edge, and studded with beautiful mansions. - -'You have bad news to tell me?' said Olive, as the haunting terror -that was ever before her struck a pang to her heart. - -'I must rejoin my regiment at once; it leaves the Castle of Edinburgh -to-morrow for Egypt, and I am to meet it at Woolwich, where the -transport awaits it. Oh, how hard it is to part with you--even for a -time,' he added, caressing her, as her head dropped upon his breast; -'to part thus, and unmarried yet, Olive--after all our past folly, -jealousies, and waste of time. Speak to me, darling!' - -'What can I say, Allan?' replied Olive, piteously, as her tears fell -fast. - -'We shall not go to this dinner-party at the Port Admiral's, of -course. Our last evening must be spent together.' - -'Oh, Allan, Allan!' - -'Take off those evil diamonds, darling--those stones of ill omen. -Why did the mater let you wear them? They are never produced without -something happening.' - -'And the transport sails--when?' - -'On Tuesday evening.' - -'So soon--so very soon!' - -'My darling--my own--don't weep so,' said he, pressing her closer to -his breast, and nestling her face in his neck, while he caressed and -tried to soothe her; but the impulsive Olive would neither be soothed -nor comforted for a time. - -When, however, she became calmer, he said, - -'I must leave you for a few minutes. I must telegraph to the -adjutant, see the mater, poor soul, and send apologies, as we shall -not go to the admiral's to-night.' - -He left her; and, sinking into a sofa, she abandoned herself to a -stormy fit of weeping and to sad and bitter reflections, and to many -unavailing regrets--unavailing now, as they were to be parted so -soon; and one grim and harrowing fact stood darkly out amid them -all--her affianced lover was going to the seat of war and disease, to -face unnumbered perils in that fatal land of Egypt! - -A slight sound roused her, and drew her attention to a glass-door of -the conservatory that opened to the garden. - -A man's face seemed glued against it--a face white and ghastly, -apparently regarding her fixedly--the face of Hawke Holcroft, -emaciated by dissipation, want, or disease--probably by all -three--his shifty eyes bloodshot and wild in expression. - -In another moment she would have screamed with terror; but he opened -the door, entered, and stood before her. - -'I never thought--at least, I was in hope never to see you again,' -said Olive, starting up, and recoiling from him. - -'Ha--indeed. But in this world are not those always meeting who are -better far apart?' was his mocking response. - -'What brings you here--what do you want?' asked Olive, gathering -courage from desperation, and trembling in her soul lest Allan should -return and find this villainous intruder there. - -'What do I want! Money. I am, and have been for days, starving.' - -'Money I shall not be weak enough to give you again, under any threat -or any pressure. The last I gave you cost me dearly,' said Olive, -firmly, though terrified to find herself face to face with this -would-be assassin again. - -'You will not?' - -'No.' - -'Then give me these jewels--these diamonds,' he said, hoarsely; and, -ere she could move or speak, he snatched up the necklace and pendants -from a pedestal on which she had placed them, and thrust them into -his breast-pocket. 'For a time, now, the work of art I possess shall -be withheld from the British public--but for a time only--and in the -memory of the time when you loved me, or led me to believe that you -did.' - -'Insolent--how dare you say so?' she exclaimed. - -'You tried to win my heart, and won it, too--you played with me fast -and loose, as you did with your cousin, for whom you did not care one -doit, then at least, and for whom I believe you care nothing now.' - -Olive glanced round her in dismay, for should such words as these, -and others that followed them, reach listening ears, she might be -lost, and she was powerless to stay the impetuous current of his -studiously mischievous speech. Moreover, she did not see what Hawke -Holcroft saw behind some towering ferns and other plants--a form, -with firm-set teeth and flashing eye, transported by fury, while his -feet were rooted to the spot--the face of Allan Graham, who saw and -overheard, yet failed to comprehend the situation! - -A vindictive desire to separate the lovers if he could, and to -humiliate the man he hated, took possession of the diabolical mind of -Holcroft, who said, - -'Let me kiss your hand, Olive, but once again, ere I leave you--I, -whom you loved once so well!' - -'Insolent!' exclaimed the girl, impetuously. - -But, ere she could resist him or escape, he threw his arms round her, -pressed her to his breast, kissed her many times, and then--as Allan -sprang forward--he quitted the conservatory, and vanished into the -gloom outside, while, with a low wail of horror and distress at the -shameful affront put upon her, Olive covered her face with her -tremulous hands, and murmured, - -'Oh, this is too much to endure!' - -'Too much, indeed,' said a voice, as a heavy hand grasped her -shoulder, and she was swung round with a force that was almost rude, -to meet the white face and flaming eyes of Allan. - -'Allan,' she exclaimed, piteously, and held out her hands. - -'Stand off and touch me not,' he cried. 'Idiots only will be cozened -twice,' he added, unconsciously quoting Dryden. - -He gave her an awful and withering glance, and, snatching up a heavy -stick, he dashed into the garden after the intruder, whom he saw in -the act of escaping by a gate that opened upon the common, across -which he fled like a hare, pursued closely by Allan Graham, whom, as -an active mountaineer and trained soldier, he was not likely to -escape. - -The sun had set amid dim and lurid clouds; the evening was gloomy, -close, and stormy; the bellowing of the ocean could be heard along -the whole line of the sea-wall, from the Spur Redoubt to Southsea -Castle. A heavy gale from the offing was rolling the waves in their -force and fury upon the shore, where, in anticipation thereof, the -boats and bathing machines were all drawn up high and dry upon the -shelving shingle. The shipping at anchor were straining on their -cables, and sheet lightning, red and fiery, threw forward in black -outline from time to time the undulating curves of the Isle of Wight. - -But Allan Graham saw none of these things; he only saw the fugitive -Holcroft, who ran madly towards the sea-shore, and disappeared round -the angle of the East Battery that overhangs the sea, closely -followed by his infuriated pursuer. - -'What has happened, Olive--speak?' said Lady Aberfeldie, who was -completely bewildered by the condition in which she found Olive, and -bitterly regretting the absence of her husband, who was then in -London; and Olive, feeling now the unwisdom and futility of further -concealment, told her all about the power Holcroft had wielded over -her by working on her pride, shame, and fear, and how, by direct -acting, he had too probably achieved the very end which the evil -prompting of a moment had doubtless suggested--the placing of herself -in a false position with Allan, and causing a hopeless quarrel and -separation between them. - -'And now that he has left me thus, auntie, I shall never see him -again!' cried Olive, while, burying her face in her hands, she wept -bitterly. 'I shall never forget how pallid his poor face became, and -how his eyes glared with fury through their unshed tears; and never -shall I forget the gaze of tenderness, astonishment, and reproach -that came into them as he turned from me in bitter silence.' - -'It is very unfortunate,' said Lady Aberfeldie, with difficulty -restraining her own tears, though buoyed up by indignation at the -daring and insolence of Holcroft; 'but Allan will return in a few -minutes, and I shall undertake to explain the whole affair.' - -But the time passed on; hour succeeded hour, till midnight struck, -and aunt and niece sat watching each other with pale and anxious -faces, for there was no appearance of Allan. - -They supposed that in his first gust of anger he had gone to some -club or hotel, and would, when in a calmer frame of mind, return on -the morrow; but the morrow had passed into evening, and he returned -no more! - -Olive felt that he and she were roughly rent asunder, and likely to -drift further and further apart on the stormy sea of life. - -And now to account for his non-appearance. - -Aware that he had no mercy to expect between the hands of Allan on -one side, and those of the police on the other, Hawke Holcroft -thought only of escape, and, dreading flight towards the town, in the -blindness of his terror or confusion he turned towards the sea, and -ran along the summit of the steep, rocky, and abruptly shelving bank -that is overlooked by the low earthen-works and square, squat tower -of Southsea Castle. - -Finding Allan close upon him, so close that he could almost hear his -footsteps, amid the bellowing of the wind and booming of the sea that -rolled in white foam against the stone parapet wall which was -bordered by the narrow pathway he was compelled to pursue, he -suddenly turned in blind desperation and levelled a revolver at -Allan's head, while a tiger-like fury filled his sallow visage. - -It snapped, hung fire, and was struck from his hand by Allan, on -which he turned again and fled into the grey obscurity, whither Allan -could not follow him now, as the sea with a succession of angry roars -was lashing the steep stony bank and hurling its spray over the -parapet wall, while wave after wave boiled over all the path the -fugitive had to pursue. - -Again and again he saw the miserable wretch lose his footing, while -the waves tried to suck him down, and again and again, clinging with -despairing energy to the edge of the stony path, he strove to recover -it. - -A low wailing cry of despair escaped him as one wave towering higher -than all the rest--perhaps a tenth wave, if there be such a -thing--enveloped him in its foamy flood and sucked him furiously -downward in its back-wash, amid which he seemed to struggle feebly as -a fly might have done. - -Once or twice Allan saw his head bobbing amid the white foam and his -upthrown hands, that had nothing to clutch at, till the waves dashed -him again and again, as if in wild sport, among a row of great wooden -dolphins which are placed in the shingle there to break the fury of -the incoming sea, and stand up like a line of gigantic teeth, and in -less than a minute Hawke Holcroft vanished from sight! - -Then a long breath escaped Allan. - -'The sea has done it not I, though richly did he merit at my hands -the fate he has met,' thought he, as he hurried away to alarm the -sentinels and castle guard; but all too late to succour Holcroft in -any way or even to search for his body. - -Darkness had set in now, the fury of the sea was increasing, and if -Hawke Holcroft was found at all, it would be as a drowned man, with -the fatal diamonds in his possession, when the tide ebbed and the -long stretch of seaweed and shingle was left dry. - -But he might never be found at all, and lie, as the skeletons are -still lying there, among the timbers of the _Royal George_. - -Allan knew that he was due with his regiment at Woolwich on the -morrow, and, being full of rage and bitter disappointment with -disgust at the whole of this recent event--too full to have -explanations with his mother, or hear aught that Olive Raymond might, -as he naturally thought, be artful enough to advance, perhaps to -brazen out--intent only on quitting the scene and, if possible, of -forgetting a situation so degrading and repugnant to his pride--he -resolved to write to his father renouncing his cousin for ever; and, -throwing himself into a cab, drove straight to the railway station -and took the first train to London. - -Hence it was that he returned to Puddicombe House no more. - -And as the train swept clanking along the line, amid the monotony of -its sound the words of Olive's song, with what he deemed her accursed -raillery underlying them, came gallingly back to his memory, with -painful reiteration, - - 'I know a maiden fair to see, - Take care! - She can both false and friendly be, - Beware, beware! - Trust her not. She is fooling thee.' - - -'And for what a wretched creature she has dared to fool me!' he -thought, while a bitter malediction hovered on his lips. - -In due time, with all his comrades of the Black Watch, he found -himself on board the _Nepaul_, and, after she had steamed out of the -Albert Dock, amid the deafening cheers of thousands, even amid all -the bustle and high military enthusiasm that surrounded him, he felt -half mad with grief, mortification, and fury. - -Night and day his mind was full of angry and bitter dreams; a -conviction of Olive's guilt and the shame of her discovery were ever -before him. - -Brave young Allan Graham was stricken to the heart; yet he bore -himself graciously and gallantly, though a conviction grew strong in -his mind that he would find his grave in the land he was going to. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS. - -Ismailia, by the Lake of Timsah, lay steeped in sunshine, while the -regiments of the Highland Brigade, for the second time, after the -lapse of eighty years, landed upon Egyptian soil again. - -Built equi-distant from Port Said and Suez, this new town protects -the outlet of the second canal, which carries the supply of fresh -water from the Nile near Cairo to the Isthmus. In 1862 the place -where it stands was a scene of sandy desolation. Seven years later -saw a brilliant little French town in existence with a broad quay, -bordering the lake, with hotels, cafés, a theatre where vaudevilles -were acted, a street of well-stocked shops, a public garden with a -fountain spouting Nile water in the Place Champollion, the telegraph -wires overhead, and the bells of a Christian church ringing, where, -but a short time before, the wandering Bedouin, the nomadic dweller -in tents, the child of the desert, with glittering spear and floating -burnous, urged his camel on its solitary way from Ramses to Serapium. - -The heat was intense, and to the eyes of the Scottish mountaineers -the scenery about Ismailia seemed intensely monotonous. Cloudless -skies of the deepest and richest blue formed a contrast to the vast -expanse of yellow sand that stretched far, far away till lost in hazy -distance, but the desert is susceptible of many shades and changes of -colour. - -It is said that at Ismailia the stranger can very fully realise the -purity, the balm, and beauty of the Egyptian night, especially if -seated over wine and a cigar in the Hôtel des Voyageurs, where he may -watch the Lake of Timsah, and so varied are the tints of the latter -in the light of the red sun setting in the west, amid a lurid glow of -gold and crimson, that it looks like three lakes; towards the canal -that leads to Serapium it seems a deep blue; where the ships are -grouped near Ismailia, its wavelets seem silver with gold, while the -moon comes slowly up like a silver dawn, and rosy tints yet linger -when the sun has gone abruptly down. - -But no time was given to the Highlanders either to study scenery or -artistic effects, even if so disposed. Each regiment was rapidly -formed in column--every officer and man in his fighting kit, with -tropical helmet, haversack, and water bottle; the men with their -valises and greatcoats, and the march began towards the desert where -the Egyptians of Arabi awaited them at Tel-el-Kebir. - -Little was talked of then but the recent cavalry fight at Kassassin, -where our Life Guards swept the ranks of Arabi's infantry, and where -a horde of wild Bedouins, who had been hovering near the field like -birds of prey, after their departure poured in to strip and rob the -dead and wounded of both armies, killing all who were able to resist. - -The mess--or regiment rather, as there was no mess now--saw that -Allan Graham had come back a sorely changed man, who had hours of -evident depression alternated by furious hilarity--not the man's old -style at all; but his world, like Hamlet's, was 'out of joint.' The -conduct of Olive Raymond yet remained a profound, an unexplained and -exasperating mystery to him; but he felt, how bitterly, that love -lives even after trust and faith are dead and buried; and now that he -was so far, far away from her, dreams of a yearning and sorrowful -kind, with many stinging thoughts, that he feared would never leave -him, filled his mind as he marched at the head of his company towards -the darkening desert. - -In his looks and manner, Evan Cameron, like others, read a marked yet -undefinable change; his bearing now was occasionally haughty and -reserved; at other times his eyes seemed strangely sad. What could -have happened? Cameron did not ask, and as yet Allan said nothing -about it; and, sooth to say, in his own thoughts of Eveline, the -former had cause to be sad enough too. - -His memories were ever of the days at Dundargue, and the chance -parting in the belvidere at Maviswood; and again her kisses, the -touch of her little caressing hands, with her voice came vividly to -him. - -In some of the last papers that had reached the transport, _viâ_ the -Continent, he could see that she was leading a life of outward -gaiety. Could he doubt that it was otherwise than outward? He -gathered a sombre satisfaction from the thought, and then strove to -set it aside as selfish. - -Why should she not enjoy balls and flowers-shows, races and regattas, -the drawing-room at Buckingham Palace, and other brilliant -gatherings? Yet as he read of these things a frown of mingled anger, -sorrow, and even mockery gathered on his brow in spite of himself. - -In the same papers Allan could discover no trace of any body having -been cast upon the beach either at Southsea or the shore of the Isle -of Wight, and hence he supposed that the remains of the drowned -Holcroft must have been taken out to sea. - -The Highland enthusiasm, the warlike spirit that blazed up within -him, kept him from a great despair, for latterly his love for Olive -had become a part of his own existence. - -The novelty of the land in which our new campaign had opened, the -incessant watchfulness, the time and attention each duty brought with -it, all gave him a recklessness as to life and as to fear of death, -that after a time won him the involuntary admiration of the Black -Watch and the whole Highland Brigade. - -Just as the sun set, the bugles sounded a 'halt' after a march of six -miles, but six terrible miles they were, for at every step the -Highlanders sank ankle-deep in the soft and sun-dried sand. - -All around that halting-place a sea of the latter seemed to stretch -in every direction, bare and desolate, save where Ismailia lay, its -edifices looking inky, black, and opaque in outline against the -orange and primrose sky; and black looked the masts of the transports -as they rose like a forest amid the waters of the Lake of Timsah. - -When the first bivouac was formed at El-Magfar, the bare-kneed -Highlanders, each rolled in his blanket on the soft sand, slept -comfortably enough; but with morning came the first instalment of -misery, when the heavy dew that soaks everything left them cold and -stiff, and longing even for the fierce unclouded sun again. - -'A devil of a country this,' said Carslogie. 'By day it is too hot -to eat, to act, or even to think; and at night it is too cold to -sleep or think of anything but the bitter cold itself.' - -And but for the hot tea made for all over-night, when the brigade -first came to its camping-place, some injury to health must have -ensued; but the men were too weary to eat even a biscuit, of which -each carried a two days' supply in the canvas haversack that formed -his only pillow. - -Before the sun was up, Allan rose from the sand and looked about him. -Under the starlight the Highland bivouac--for camp it was -not--presented a curious sight, as the men lay in ranks, each rolled -in his blanket, beside the piles of arms; the sentinels of the -out-piquets on the way to Tel-el-Mahuta standing dark and motionless -against the blue of the sky, looking in kilt and helmet like the -statues of ancient Romans. - -To get a little warmth ere the pipers blew the 'rouse,' he walked a -short distance from where the men of his company lay, and near a -fragment of ruined wall, beside which grew a patch of those prickly -plants (round which hillocks of sand occasionally gather), and a -solitary gum-tree grew, he found, rolled up in a burnous, and -evidently concealing himself in dread and fear, a Bedouin. There was -a small palm-grove near Magfar; why did he not seek hiding there? - -'Hallo, my man,' thought Allan, 'what are you lurking here -for?--mischief, no doubt.' - -He drew his claymore, supposing the lurker could be but a spy who had -crept within our chain of sentries; but the wild son of the desert -raised his hands deprecatingly, and, opening his burnous, showed that -he was perishing from a dreadful wound--a sword cut that had laid -open his right shoulder and breast. - -Allan put his brandy-flask to the sufferer's lips, raising his head -as he did so, and then addressed him inquiringly. Allan had picked -up some Arabic in India, and thus could understand the Bedouin, who -informed him that he had been wounded thus, by one of those sons of -Anak, our Life-guardsmen, in the charge at Kassassin. - -'An Egyptian, by jingo!' exclaimed Carslogie, who came up at that -moment. 'Are you about to become a studier of humanity?' - -'Well, Cuvier was great in the study of wasps, and so forth. Why -shouldn't I study Egyptians?' replied Allan, grimly, 'and this poor -devil seems to have been wounded in the affair at Kassassin the other -day.' - -'You understand him, then?' - -'Perfectly. Please bring one of the staff surgeons quickly; he must -have been lying here when we took up our ground over-night.' - -The Bedouin, whose astonishment that he was not butchered on the -instant was great, stared alternately at Allan and at Carslogie, who -was a young fellow of the best style, one whose fine face even the -hideous tropical helmet (which is such an appalling substitute for -the graceful feather bonnet) could not spoil. His figure was slight -and elegant, his features clearly cut and refined, and his bright -brown chestnut hair was close and curly. - -The Bedouin was a perfect type of his race, and, save that he had a -good Remington rifle slung over his back, was not much changed in -habit, nature, or turn of thought from his ancestors of the tribe of -Ishmael. - -Though weakened now by suffering and great loss of blood, he seemed -spare of figure and light of limb, well-formed and active, tall, but -whether thirty or forty years old it was impossible to say. He had a -long, thin, and expressive countenance, with glittering black eyes -and teeth of pearly whiteness. His colour was a dusky brown, his -hair black and wiry. - -He was evidently a Bedouin of the desert, as the two ends of the -scarlet shawl which formed his turban hung down upon the shoulder, to -distinguish him from the Arabs of other tribes. He was clad in a -thick dark brown baracan of wool, which served as a dress by day and -a bed by night, over which was a robe with wide sleeves. - -When the doctor was dressing his wound, which was certainly a -terrible sword-cut, his richly embroidered girdle was seen, and this -announced him to be a sheikh, and such he was proved to be, as Allan -gathered from him that his name was Zeid el Ourdeh, the sheikh of a -tribe near Jebel Dimeshk, between the desert and the disused railway -to Heliopolis, 'the City of the Sun;' and as he lay there in his -picturesque costume, with a group of wondering Highlanders, in their -dark kilts and white helmets, gathered round him, and the blood-red -sun in the distance, coming swiftly up out of the dry sand of the -yellow desert, as it seemed, Allan thought what a subject was the -whole for the pencil of an artist. - -The Bedouin was on the point of fainting, so great was the agony -occasioned by the dressing of his wound; but a mouthful from Allan's -flask revived him more than it would have done one usually accustomed -to such stimulants. - -'Some sick men are going back to the rear at Ismailia,' said Allan. -'Carslogie, please to order the ambulance people to come this way. -I'll send this unfortunate creature to the Third Field Hospital.' - -Carslogie paused to scrape a vesta and light a cigar, which he -proceeded to puff with a sigh of satisfaction. - -'Quick, Carslogie,' cried Allan. 'We have no time to lose. The -bugles will sound immediately.' - -And Carslogie went on his way with the air of a man who thought the -world would be none the worse for having a Bedouin the less in it. - -In his own language, and in terms peculiarly his own, Allan could -make out that the sheikh was thanking him in a low and earnest voice, -and adding that while life lasted he 'would always deem him as a -brother. You infidels are powerful as the genii of old; you can -flash a light at night brilliant as that of the sun at noon; you have -another light that springs from the unseen air. I have seen it in -the streets of Cairo' (no doubt referring to gas); 'and you can send -your thoughts from land to land under the sea more swiftly than even -the Afrite did in the days of Solomon; and I fear that from your -hands the Egyptians will suffer such chastisement as fell on the -people of Noah, of Ad, and of Thamud,' he added, wearily and sadly, -as his head fell on one side. - -A party of the ambulance had now come, and Allan informed him that he -was to be sent to Ismailia. He did more; he placed some money in his -hand wherewith to procure necessaries, and, while the eyes of the -Bedouin gleamed with gratitude, his brown mahogany and attenuated -fingers closed avariciously and tightly on such an unusual gift as -coins. - -''Pon my soul, Allan Graham,' said Carslogie, 'considering how these -rascals treated our wounded at Kassassin, your humanity, to say the -least of it, seems to me to be a little misplaced.' - -'Perhaps; but I cannot help it. I feel a little tender-hearted just -now,' said Allan, with a smile, as the wounded Bedouin--of whom he -had not seen the last--was borne away. - -The pipes struck up, and once more the columns began a ten-miles' -march to Mahsameh. The Gordon Highlanders were in advance, the -Camerons next, then came the Highland Light Infantry, and then the -Black Watch, all toiling through the soft, deep sand. These splendid -regiments were all marching in massed columns, at one pace interval, -the cavalry moving with them collaterally on one flank, and the -artillery on the other, clattering along, with spunges, buckets, -spare wheels, and forge waggons--all forming a grand, impressive -spectacle in the midst of the wide Egyptian desert. - -To Scottish soldiers, who are usually so well-grounded in their Bible -history, the soil they were treading, if the toil made it disgusting -on one hand, memory made it full of deep interest on the other. They -knew that they were already in, or were approaching, the Land of -Goshen, where, by the tasks they had conned at school and those which -their ministers superintended, they were aware that they were nigh -unto the place where Jacob dwelt of old, that he might be near to -Joseph, who lived at Pharaoh's court; near to the place where father -and son met, and where we still find Rameses, which was built by the -Israelites in the days of their bondage; and, as our soldiers marched -on, some there were who recalled these things to each other, as their -minds went back to the village kirk, whose bells awoke the echoes of -green and lonely glens, and to the firesides of their fathers, when -expounding on these things on Saturday night, when the 'big ha' -Bible' was produced; and, though they might yawn wearily over such -matters at home, these scriptural names and localities had a very -different effect upon them now. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE MARCH THROUGH GOSHEN. - -On, and on, and on, through the same kind of Egyptian -landscape--tame, barren, and insipid--so terribly vapid and flatly -horrid, when compared with the Salvatoresque hills and glens of their -native land--the naked plain, bounded by occasional hillocks at vast -distances--the toilsome march of the Highlanders continued. Yet -there are luxuriant plains in some parts of the Land of Goshen. - -Sometimes date-trees were seen, with trunks bare and slender, or -mud-walled wigwams on the causeways; but it is a land that, with all -its vast antiquity and religious associations, of which no poet has -ever sung. 'What, indeed, could an Egyptian sing on the reed of -Gesner or Theocritus?' asks Volney. 'He sees neither limpid streams, -nor verdant lawns, nor solitary caves; and is equally a stranger to -valleys, mountain-sides, and impending rocks.' Miss Martineau is -almost the only traveller who claims for Egypt the attributes of the -picturesque and varied in beauty! - -And there were incessant swarms of scorpions, gnats, and more -especially of flies--one of the many plagues of Egypt--which were so -numerous that it was impossible to eat the dry ration biscuits -without the chance of swallowing these pests also. - -More than once, on the summit of a sandy hillock, there would appear, -sharply defined against the clear blue sky, the picturesque figure of -a mounted Bedouin, with his white burnous floating about him, a tall, -reed-like spear, or a long musket slung by his side--a man unchanged -in aspect or ideas from his nomadic forefathers, who saw the mailed -Crusaders toiling on their way to Jerusalem--gazing with stolid -wonder at the marching columns in a costume so strange, with bare -knees, white sporrans, and kilts of dark-green tartan waving at every -step; while on the hot and breathless air there was borne towards him -the hoarse and shrill music of the pipes--the same wild music that, -eighty years before, woke the echoes of the Pyramids and of the -streets of Grand Cairo. - -But what land in the world has not echoed to their music? - -All our soldiers were more or less full of enthusiasm--anxious to get -at Arabi--to grapple with the enemy, 'and get the business over,' as -they phrased it; though it is doubtful if they quite believed in Sir -Garnet Wolseley's apparently boastful prediction that the war would -be ended by the 16th of that month, September. - -In the exuberance of their spirits, many chorussed merrily when the -pipes ceased, which was seldom, lilting as, a writer says, only 'the -song-loving Scots' can do, as in the days when their country was -redolent of song, when the milk-maid sang some old chant to her cows -in field or byre, when the house-wife span at her ingle-neuk, when -the reapers filled the harvest-field with melody, and the ploughman -in winter when he turned the glistening furrows over the lea. - -And now and anon the Bedouin scouts would wheel their horses round -and vanish ere our cavalry could reach them to bear to Tel-el-Kebir -the terrible tidings, as some said, 'that devils in petticoats' were -coming, and, as others asserted, 'devils with beards down to their -knees.' - -Every man had one hundred rounds of ball-cartridge and his bottle -filled with water from the Canal, called by the soldiers jocularly -'Egyptian soup,' from its hue and quality; thus a ration of rum, when -it was served out, proved very acceptable, though some there were who -did not much affect the cold tea, and Allan could not help smiling at -a little argument that ensued between Corporal MacSnish of his -company and one of the Scripture-readers, who, to their honour, be it -said, kept up with the troops, went under fire with them, and after -the conflict did all in their power to alleviate the sufferings of -the wounded. - -'Don't grumble, corporal,' said the Scripture-reader, 'though I know -it is a soldier's privilege. He who paints the lilies of the field -and feeds the sparrow will supply all you want.' - -'Oich, I hope so, whateffer; but a corporal of the Black Watch is -worth a good many sparrows, I can tell you, and as for the cold -tea--ugh!' - -'Better for you than all the liquor in the world, my man,' said the -Scripture-reader. - -'Even the worst whusky, whateffer, would be better to my mind; and we -have Scripture for it that we should not drink water alone.' - -'Indeed!' said the reader, doubtfully. - -'Yes,' urged the corporal, who knew his Bible well; 'are we not told -in Maccabees, chapter xv. and verse 39, that "it is hurtful to drink -wine or water alone, as wine mingled with water is pleasant and -delighteth the taste?"' - -'For all that,' replied the Scripture-reader, 'I agree with Sir -Garnet that water is alone the drink for man.' - -'Yet the only man that Holy Writ records as ever asking for it, -didn't get it.' - -'Who was _he_?' - -'Dives, and we all know where _he_ was then. Scripture again!' said -the corporal, with a smirk on his sharp Highland face, and thinking -he had decidedly the best of the argument. - -During a mid-day halt on this march, some of the troops constructed -out of blankets and rifles with fixed bayonets erections like gipsy -tents, to shelter them from the blazing heat of the sun, and a -singular kind of encampment they presented. - -With ship biscuits and tinned meat and some brandy to flavour their -cold tea, Allan Graham, Cameron, Carslogie, and some other officers -of the corps made themselves as comfortable as they could under -shelter of their impromptu tents, and many were even jolly, -especially Carslogie, who was rather a noisy and irrepressible fellow. - -Stretched on the sand with his tropical helmet tilted back on his -head, he drank his 'cold tea,' as he called it, though it was stiff -half-and-half grog, and proffered his cigar-case to all. - -'Isn't this jolly!' he exclaimed. 'Instead of this, we might have -been out in the blazing open.' - -Then he struck up a verse of a song to the air of the 'Garb of Old -Gaul,' and composed by an anonymous writer, though he hinted it was -Mr. John Bright:-- - - 'They talk of a good time, when warfare shall cease, - And the nations hobnob o'er a big pipe of peace, - And the lion and the lamb in auriferous mead - On bills of exchange in beatitude feed. - But keep your powder dry, my boys, and keep your bayonets keen; - The world can't do without us yet, nor will it soon, I ween! - Then stern and true, where work's to do, we'll do it as we can, - And shoulder to shoulder still march in the van!' - - -'The good time predicted seems a long way off yet,' he added, with a -sigh, to find that the last of his grog was gone, for after a hot -morning's march it was, as he said, 'quite a Sybaritish luxury.' -'Well, well, a little time will find us face to face with Arabi, and -we shall exchange the fleshpots of Egypt for those of the old -country.' - -This was the 11th of September, and the march was resumed at five in -the evening for the head-quarters at Kassassin, where the column -found its tents pitched. Allan shared his with Cameron, and, like -their comrades, they proceeded to make themselves as comfortable as -they could; but it soon became known that on the morrow the Highland -Brigade was to lead in the night attack upon the formidable -entrenchments of Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir. - -'The last bugle some of us may ever hear will sound at six to-morrow -evening,' said Allan, as he and Cameron, after a picnic kind of -repast, lay on the floor of the tent and smoked their Havanas, with -their jackets open, and minus collars and ties, for the evening was -hot then, though cold and dew came together the moment the sun went -down, and then there was no light in the tent save those of the stars. - -'Listen to Carslogie singing in his tent; no sombre reflections seem -to come to him,' said Cameron. - -'Some of us, of course, will lose the number of our mess, as the -sailors say,' said Allan again, after a pause. - -'Well, it is not a cheerful thought, Allan,' said Cameron; 'but life -is not particularly rosy with me just now, so I am just the fellow to -have a charmed one when under fire again to-morrow.' - -'There is a history in all men's lives, Cameron, it is said. Well, -there is a devil of a lot in mine--more than I care for.' - -'You have long seemed rather low in spirit.' - -'I have reason,' replied Allan, while that inexpressible longing to -talk of himself and his sorrows, which seizes upon men now and then, -came upon him, and he related to Cameron the whole story of his -engagement with his cousin, his doubts and fears--the intrusions and -outrageous insults put upon them both by Hawke Holcroft, who seemed -to wield some degrading and mysterious power once--a power that was -ended now; 'and,' he added, after his narrative was ended, 'I trust -under heaven never to look upon her false fair face again!' - -Cameron heard his strange story in silent amazement. - -'Can all this not be explained?' he asked. - -'I want no explanation; I have been degraded enough,' replied Allan, -bitterly. - -Cameron, strangely enough, had never, as yet, even to his early -friend and comrade, made any reference to what the latter fully -knew--his love for Eveline: and never once had her name escaped him -during the long voyage in the Nepaul from Woolwich to Ismailia, nor -even on the march towards the enemy. - -Poor Cameron had thought, what was the use of speaking of that matter -now, when all was hopeless--all over, and for ever, between them? -But now, encouraged or melted by Allan Graham's new confidence in -himself, he said, - -'With reference to the risks we run tomorrow, I am glad that I set my -house in order, did so, indeed, before we marched from Edinburgh.' - -'How?' - -'About Stratherroch, or what remains of it.' - -'In what way, Evan?' - -We must all die sooner or later--a soldier sooner, perhaps, than a -civilian; so by will, if aught happens to me--I have left the old -place--tower and hill, wood, glen, and water, to--to Eveline--I mean -to Lady Paget.' - -'Good heavens! To Eveline!' exclaimed Allan, his face full of a -surprise that was unseen in the starlight and darkened bell tent.' - -'Yes.' - -'Have you no one else?' - -'None save my brother Duncan, who has himself a large fortune--none -whom I love as--as I love her,' added Cameron, in a very broken voice. - -'Poor Evan! I always suspected--indeed, knew of it.' - -'You did?' - -'Yes, Evan.' - -'And--and your sister.' - -'She loved you.' - -'My God!--yet was sacrificed to another.' - -They wrung each other's hands in the dark, and both remained silent -for a time, each full of his own thoughts, and in the gloom seeing -nothing but the end of the other's cigar. - -'Sir Paget is so rich that he will think little of Stratherroch, even -when cleared of its heavy encumbrances,' said Evan. - -'But he may think rather wrathfully of the donor, though I trust and -hope he may never get it. And now, good-night, Evan. I have to -parade the inlying picquet. Get some sleep if you can, old -fellow--we'll need all our metal on the morrow.' - -And Allan, taking his dirk and claymore, hurried away full of -thought, for, if his friend really fell, this odd bequest of -Stratherroch might compromise his sister with her elderly spouse, and -it was impossible to make any change, circumstanced as they were then. - -'It is said that "every man has a history, and that every man -outlives it,"' thought Allan; 'I wonder how it will be with poor Evan -and me. And now to parade the picquet, with that paragon of -sergeant-majors, M'Neill. Picquets parade at sunset--here, however, -the sun sets before we have time to think of it. But the fight -to-morrow will be to Evan and me--for a time, at least--what opium -was to De Quincey and the author of the "Ancient Mariner." Fool, -fool, fool that I am, to think of _her_ here at all!' - -He left Evan Cameron inspired by a mingled emotion of gratitude and -satisfaction, for Evan now knew and felt certain that, had Eveline -been in Allan's gift, she might have been his bride ere this; and -with this conviction in his mind he strove to court sleep, while -roused ever and anon, as in India, by the wild cry of the jackal. - -Sir Garnet Wolseley had now come up, the brigade of guards also, and -the whole strength of the British force was concentrated at -Kassassin, the place of our cavalry victory, where our horse so -gallantly charged and swept, sword in hand, through the brigades of -Egyptian guns in the dark. - -With the next day's dawn those officers, who, like the Master of -Aberfeldie, Cameron, and others, advanced beyond a palm wood that -grew near the camp, could distinctly see with their field-glasses, -against the bright orange tint shed on the sky by the up-coming sun, -the strong earthworks of Tel-el-Kebir crowning the hillocks, and -manned by more than twenty thousand regular troops--the flower of the -army of Arabi, who commanded them in person; and when the sun rose -higher the infantry could be seen lining the trenches, with all their -serried bayonets flashing in the sunshine. - -Beyond these formidable earthworks the Egyptian camp could be seen in -the distance spreading far away an almost unbroken line of tents, -which, if they had all occupants, betokened the presence of a very -great force indeed, as more than one reconnoitring officer remarked -to another. - -Many were full of disappointment lest there might be no fighting -after all, as the preceding morning the sound of heavy firing had -been heard in the rear of the Egyptian position, and there seemed a -prospect of internal dissension facilitating a dissolution of the -whole enemy's force. - -Others more wisely suggested that Arabi was only practising his -artillery to obtain the range in case his position was turned and -attacked in the rear, though some asserted that the deep booming of -the guns was too steady and continuous for mere practice of that -nature. - -The British troops had only a five days' reserve of provisions, but -it was generally known that the country was rich and full of -subsistence beyond the lines of Tel-el-Kebir, and that we would carry -these no man under Wolseley doubted. Moreover, he had with him sixty -of the finest pieces of cannon in the world. - -The day passed on, and evening drew nigh, the eventful day of the -12th September, when every man was prepared to 'do or die!' Higher -and higher beat every heart. At six p.m. the 'fall in' was sounded -far along the lines, and quietly, as if upon parade at home, that -stately soldier M'Neill, sergeant-major of the Black Watch, paraded -and posted the markers for the various companies of his corps, -'dressing' them with his usual accuracy. - -The orders were brief but emphatic. Perfect silence was to be -maintained for the march, and, as the place was to be carried in -grand old British style at the point of the bayonet, on no account -was an order to load to be issued. - -Each man carried a hundred rounds of ball with one day's provisions, -and his tin water-bottle filled with cold tea. The tents were -struck, and the baggage piled for conveyance to the rear, in case of -a reverse, which no man thought possible. - -The blood-red sun went swiftly down westward of the point of attack -beyond Zagazig, darkness fell as swiftly over the desert and the -triple lines of canal that flow between both Mahsameh and Abassa, and -then our army, fourteen thousand strong, including foot, horse, and -artillery, began in silence the midnight march for Tel-el-Kebir, the -last march as it proved to many a brave young fellow. - -As the regiment moved off, Allan thought of Evan Cameron's -communication over-night, and an irrepressible regret and anxiety -took possession of him, as he had an unaccountable presentiment that -his friend was doomed to fall in the coming strife. Of himself he -never thought at all. - - - -END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. - - - -LONDON: PRINTED BY DUNCAN MACDONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE. - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER OF ABERFELDIE, VOLUME II -(OF 3) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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