en Christine twittered and sang to
her all the day through. Over Christine herself had come the same
bright change; her still, calm face often dimpled into smiles, her
pale-gold hair was snooded with a pretty ribbon, and her dress a
little richer. Yet, after all, the change was so slight that none but
a lover would have noticed it. But there was not a smile or a shade of
brighter color that James did not see; and he bore it with an
equanimity which used often to astonish himself, though it would not
have done so if he had dared just once to look down into his heart; he
bore it because he knew that Donald was living two lives--one that
Christine saw, and one that she could not even have imagined.

It was, alas, too true that this gay, good-natured young man, who had
entered the fashionable world without one bad habit, was fast becoming
proficient in all its follies and vices. That kind of negative
goodness which belonged naturally to him, unfortified by strict habits
and strong principles, had not been able to repel the seductions and
temptations that assail young men, rich, handsome, and well-born.
There was an evil triumph in James' heart one night when Donald said
to him, as they walked home after an evening at David's,

"Mr. Blackie, I wish you could lend me L20. I am in a little trouble,
and I cannot ask Uncle David for more, as I have already overdrawn my
father's allowance."

James loaned it with an eager willingness, though he was usually very
cautious and careful of every bawbee of his hard-earned money. He knew
it was but the beginning of confidence, and so it proved; in a very
little while Donald had fallen into the habit of going to James in
every emergency, and of making him the confidant of all his youthful
hopes and follies.

James even schooled himself to listen patiently to Donald's praises of
his cousin Christine. "She is just the wife I shall need when I settle
down in three or four years," Donald would say complacently, "and I
think she loves me. Of course no man is worthy of such a woman, but
when I have seen life a little I mean to try and be so."

"Umph!" answered James scornfully, "do you suppose, Mr. McFarlane,
that ye'll be fit for a pure lassie like Christine Cameron when you
have played the prodigal and consorted with foolish women, and wasted
your substance in riotous living?"

And Donald said with an honest blush, "By the memory of my mother, no,
I do not, James. And I am ashamed when