e God, what do ye mean by those words?" They were both standing
now, and Graham's face was white as death. "Is the love of John Graham
of Claverhouse a dishonor?"

"It is, and so is the love of any man if he be pledged to another
woman. Though we go not to Court, think you I have not heard of Helen
Graham, the heiress of Monteith, and your courting of her--where, the
story goes, ye have been more successful than catching ministers of
the kirk? Ye would play with me! I thank God my brother lives, and
they say he is no mean swordsman."

"If it were as you believe, my lady, and I had spoken of love to you
when I was betrothed to another woman, then ye did well and worthy of
your blood to be angry, and my Lord Cochrane's sword, if it had found
its way to my heart, had rid the world of a rascal. Rumor is often
wrong, and it has told you false this time. I deny not, since I am on
my confession, that I desired to wed Helen Graham, and I will also say
freely, though it also be to my shame, that I desired to win her, not
only because she was a Graham and a gracious maiden, but because I
should obtain rank and power, for I have ever hungered for both, that
with them I might serve my cause. My suit did not prosper, so that we
were never betrothed, and now I hear she is to be married to Captain
Rawdon, the nephew of my Lord Conway. I would have married Helen
Graham in her smock if need be, though I say again I craved that
title, and I would have been a faithful husband to her. But I have
never loved her, nor any other woman before. Love, Jean"--he went on,
and they both unconsciously had seated themselves a little apart--"is
like the wind spoken of in the Holy Gospel. It bloweth where it
listeth, and is not to be explained by reasons. In my coming and going
to Court I have seen many fair women, and some of them have smiled on
me and tried to take me by the lure of their eyes, but none has ever
been so bonnie to me as you, Jean, and your hair of burnished gold.
Doubtless I have met holier women than you, though my way has not lain
much among the saints, but though one should show me a hundred faults
in you, ye are to me to-day the best, and I declare if ye had sinned I
would love you for your sins only less than for your virtues. I love
you as a man should love a woman: altogether, your fair body from the
crown of your head to the sole of your foot, your hair, your eyes,
your mouth, your hands, the way you hold your head, the way y