unbroken for
her betrothed: now and then a look of care overcast his brow, and now
and then his hands clenched themselves with a slight nervous movement.
All through the day he paid her a courtship so tender, so deferential,
so loving, it might have been a votary addressing his saint, a courtier
waiting on his queen; and as the hour advanced, and the time of
departure drew near, his attentions became yet more tender, more
wistful.

They visited the horses and the dogs, gave bread to the shy young
gazelle that John was endeavouring to tame, to offer to his bride. Then
he suddenly drew her aside, and while Mr. Ives and Mary Jones strolled
onwards to the garden, he took a key from his pocket, and unlocked the
door of a loose box which he had passed by hitherto.

"Here lives my best treasure, sweetheart," he said. "You must travel
far, and look wide, ere you meet with his match."

Betty looked in, and her eyes fell on a magnificent white horse. It
would have needed an experienced eye fully to appreciate the strength
and symmetry of its proportions; to Betty he looked beautiful, and words
failed to describe her admiration.

"Strange that I have never chanced to see you ride him," she said. "I
recognised at once the brown mare and the two chestnuts, and the bay
with a white star, but this one I have never seen."

"No, I never hunt Seagull," he answered thoughtfully. "I owe him my life
not once, but over and over again."

"Seagull!" exclaimed Betty. "Is not that the name of Wild Jack's famous
white horse?"

"Yes, he was named after him. I bethought myself that my Seagull was as
noble an animal as Wild Jack's."

"I am sure that he has not his equal in the wide world!" cried Betty.

John Johnstone turned suddenly to her and said: "Do you still keep up
your interest in that poor sinner Wild Jack, sweet Bet? or has it died
away in your gentle breast?"

"I shall never forget our first, and (heaven grant) our last interview,"
she answered with a smile. "How he justified my trust in him!"

"Poor Jack," said John Johnstone thoughtfully. "I knew Jack well once;
you were right to have faith in him. He has done good service to the
Cause. Look you, dear, he never took purse or papers on the king's
highway, but in the king's name who is over the seas; he never injured
woman or shot an unnecessary shot--keep your sympathy with Jack. And
now," he said, throwing back his head with an odd look of defiance and
pride--"now there i