her
face away. And thus they sat for what seemed an hour, while the
sympathetic widow poured out voluptuous harmonies without cessation.

In reality it was only two minutes later that Mr. Walkingshaw and Andrew
entered: the senior partner looking, for a habitual diner-out, curiously
flushed after his mild indulgence in port; the junior partner's full
cheeks bulging with the backwash of a lover's smile. Frank sprang up,
and his brother, smiling even more affectionately, took his chair. At
the same moment the widow stopped playing, and the scales seemed
suddenly to fall from the young soldier's eyes. He saw himself as the
most despicable villain in Europe, and Ellen as lost for ever, whether
as sister or friend. So distraught was he that he had nearly tried to
open a mid-Victorian cabinet before he discovered it was not the door.
Downstairs he hurried wildly, threw on an ulster and cap, and the front
door banged behind him.

The unhappy young man looked up at the circle of solemn mansions which
towered above him, black against the dark gray heavens, and it seemed to
him that each one as he passed it silently rebuked him; while the trees
across the street, even though they were decidedly less solid, gave vent
to their displeasure audibly. He had been brought up in the severest
Scotch traditions, and though life in the army had vastly changed his
outlook, it had in certain particulars but substituted "form" for
"duty." To-night both standards rose spectrally and shook their awful
fingers at him. He had let his heart get the better of his head! No
member of his family (save luckless Jean) whom he ever knew or heard of
had done such a thing before. Or if they had, the indiscretion had been
judiciously hushed up, and the family escutcheon kept stainless. As for
the divinity he had scandalized, she would never forgive him; she would
always think of him as a traitor to his respectable brother!

At this point a little star peeped out of the hurrying clouds and
vanished again instantly. It was as though some power above had winked.

On he strode through the steep, empty streets, lines of black freestone
houses, built by regular church-goers and unbreathed upon by scandal
ever since, frowning upon him perpetually; and the wind, which had risen
greatly, wailing and booming all sorts of morals. And now a fresh
trouble agitated him. He was growing less contrite! He kept seeing his
brother's bulging cheeks, and Ellen's innocent, ki