e parlour door.

CHAPTER XV--ON BOARD THE "JEAN"

Gilian went up to his attic, stood looking blankly from the window at
the skylights on the other side of the street, his head against the
camecil of the room. He was bewildered and pleased. He was bewildered
at this new candour of the Cornal that seemed to rank him for the first
time more than a child; he was pleased to have his escapade treated in
so tolerant a fashion, and to be taken into a great and old romance,
though there was no active feud in it as in Marget Maclean's books.
Besides, the sorrow of the old man's love story touched him. To find a
soft piece in that old warrior so intent upon the past and a splutter
of glory was astonishing, and it was pitiful too that it should be a
tragedy so hopeless. He 'listed once more on the Cornal's side in the
feud against Maam, even against Nan herself for her likeness to her
mother, forgetting the charm of her song, the glamour at the gate, and
all the magic of the garden. He determined to keep at a distance if he
was to be loyal to those who had adopted him. There was no reason,
he told himself, why he should vex the Paymaster and his brothers by
indulging his mere love of good company in such escapades as he had in
the ship and in the Duke's garden. There was no reason why---- His head
unexpectedly bumped against the camceil of the room. He was startled at
the accident. It revealed to him for the first time how time was passing
and he was growing. When he had come first to the Paymaster's that
drooping ceil was just within the reach of his outstretched hand; now he
could touch it with his brow.

"Gilian! Gilian!" cried Miss Mary up the stair.

He went down rosy red, feeling some unrest to meet a woman so soon after
the revelation of a woman's perfidy, so soon indeed after a love-tale
told among men. The parlour, as he passed its slightly open door, was
still; its candles guttered on the table. The fire was down to the
ash. He knew, without seeing it, that the old men were seated musing as
always, ancient and moribund.

Miss Mary gave him his supper. For a time she bustled round him, with
all her vexation gone, saying nothing of his sederunt with her brothers.
Peggy was at the well, spilling stoup after stoup to make her evening
gossip the longer, and the great flagged kitchen was theirs alone.

"What--what was the Cornal saying to you?" at last she queried, busying
herself as she spoke with some uncalled-for