eila's room: there were dresses,
bits of finery and what not that he knew so well, but there was no light
breathing audible in the silent and empty chamber. He shut the door as
reverently as though he were shutting it on the dead, and went down
stairs and threw himself almost fainting with despair and fatigue on a
sofa, while the world outside awoke to a new day with all its countless
and joyous activities and duties.

CHAPTER XX.

A SURPRISE.

There was no letter from Sheila in the morning; and Lavender, so soon as
the post had come and gone, went up to Ingram's room and woke him. "I
am sorry to disturb you, Ingram," he said, "but I am going to Lewis. I
shall catch the train to Glasgow at ten."

"And what do you want to get to Lewis for?" said Ingram, starting up.
"Do you think Sheila would go straight back to her own people with all
this humiliation upon her? And supposing she is not there, how do you
propose to meet old Mackenzie?"

"I am not afraid of meeting any man," said Lavender: "I want to know
where Sheila is. And if I see Mackenzie, I can only tell him frankly
everything that has happened. He is not likely to say anything of me
half as bad as what I think of myself."

"Now listen," said Ingram, sitting up in bed, with his brown beard and
grayish hair in a considerably disheveled condition: "Sheila may have
gone home, but it isn't likely. If she has not, your taking the story up
there and spreading it abroad would prepare a great deal of pain for her
when she might go back at some future time. But suppose you want to make
sure that she has not gone to her father's house. She could not have got
down to Glasgow sooner than this morning by last night's train, you
know. It is to-morrow morning, not this morning, that the Stornoway
steamer starts; and she would be certain to go direct to it at the
Glasgow Broomielaw, and go round the Mull of Cantyre, instead of
catching it up at Oban, because she knows the people in the boat, and
she and Mairi would be among friends. If you really want to know whether
she has gone north, perhaps you could do no better than run down to
Glasgow to-day, and have a look at the boat that starts to-morrow
morning. I would go with you myself, but I can't escape the office
to-day."

Lavender agreed to do this, and was about to go. But before he bade his
friend good-bye he lingered for a second or two in a hesitating way, and
then he said, "Ingram, you were speaking the other nig