derstanding,
enchanted by a gleam of red and gold, the colours of glory and of youth.

"Let us go home," whispered Miss Mary, pulling gently at Gilian's coat.

"Wait, wait, no hurry for cold kail hot again," said the Paymaster,
every instinct for gossip alert and eager.

"And you showed him the qualities of a Highland riposte! Good lad! Good
lad! I'm glad that Sandy and you learned something of the art of fence
before they tried you in the Stirling fashion," General Turner was
saying. "You'll be home for a while won't you? Come up and see us at
Maam; no ceremony, a bird, a soldier's jug, and----"

"And a soldier's song from Miss Nan, I hope," continued the young
officer, smiling. "That would be the best inducement of all I hear she's
home again from the low country, and thought she would have been in
church to-day."

"City ways, you know, Islay, city ways," said Turner, tapping the young
fellow playfully on the shoulder with his cane. "She did not come down
because she must walk! I wonder what Dr. Colin would say if he found me
yoking a horse to save a three miles Sabbath daunder to the kirk. Come
up and have your song, though, any day you like; I'll warrant you never
heard better."

"I'm certain I never did," admitted Young Islay heartily.

"And when I think," said the General softly, more closely pressing the
young fellow's arm, "that there might be no song now at all but for your
readiness with an oar, I'm bound to make a tryst of it: say Tuesday."

"Certainly!" said Young Islay. "About my readiness with an oar, now,
that was less skill than a boy's luck. I can tell you I was pretty
frightened when I baled--good heavens, how long ago I--the water from
the punt, and felt the storm would smother me!" He was flushing to speak
of a thing so much to his credit, and sought relief from his feelings by
a random remark to the Paymaster's boy.

"You mind?" said he, with a laughing look at Gilian, who wished now that
he were in the more comfortable atmosphere of the Paymaster's parlour
for he was lamentably outside the interests of this group. "You mind?"
he pressed again, as if the only victim of that storm and stranding
could ever forget!

"I remember very well," said Gilian in an Anglified accent that renewed
all Miss Mary's apprehension, for it showed an artificial mood. "I came
out of that with small credit," he went on, sparing himself nothing. "I
suppose I would have risked my life half a dozen times over to b