had was put at his
disposal, and I observed that his grasp of the situation appeared to be
clear and incisive. He introduced me to the noblemen and chiefs about him,
and I was wise enough to know that if they made much of me it was rather
for the class I was supposed to represent than for my own poor merits.
Presently I fell back to make way for another gentleman about to be
presented. Captain Macdonald made his way to me and offered a frank hand
in congratulation.

"'Fore God, Montagu, you have leaped gey sudden into favour. Deil hae't,
Red Donald brought with him a hundred claymores and he wasna half so
kenspeckle (conspicuous). I'll wad your fortune's made, for you hae leaped
in heels ower hurdies," he told me warmly.

From affairs of state to those of the heart may be a long cast, but the
mind of one-and-twenty takes it at a bound. My eye went questing, fell on
many a blushing maid and beaming matron, at last singled out my heart's
desire. She was teaching a Highland dance to a graceful cavalier in white
silk breeches, flowered satin waistcoat, and most choicely powdered
periwig, fresh from the friseur. His dainty muff and exquisite clouded
cane depended from a silken loop to proclaim him the man of fashion.
Something characteristic in his easy manner, though I saw but his back,
chilled me to an indefinable premonition of his identity. Yet an instant,
and a turn in the dance figure flung into view the face of Sir Robert
Volney, negligent and unperturbed, heedless apparently of the fact that
any moment a hand might fall on his shoulder to lead him to his death.
Aileen, to the contrary, clearly showed fear, anxiety, a troubled mind--to
be detected in the hurried little glances of fearfulness directed toward
her brother Malcolm, and in her plain eagerness to have done with the
measure. She seemed to implore the baronet to depart, and Volney smilingly
negatived her appeal. The girl's affronted eyes dared him to believe that
she danced with him for any other reason than because he had staked his
life to see her again and she would not have his death at her door.
Disdain of her own weakness and contempt of him were eloquent in every
movement of the lissom figure. 'Twas easy to be seen that the man was
working on her fears for him, in order to obtain another foothold with
her. I resolved to baulk his scheme.

While I was still making my way toward them through the throng they
disappeared from the assembly hall. A still h