hland, I'm a soldier,
I'm a man. You may put me to the door (my mother in heaven would not
blame you), but still you're mine."

He was very handsome as he stood upon the floor resolute, something of
the savage and the dandy, a man compelling. Nan felt the tremor of an
admiration, though the insult was yet burning on her countenance.

"Here's my father," she said, quickly sitting at the harpsichord again,
with her face away from it and the candle-light. Into the room stepped
the General, never knowing he had come upon a storm. Their silence
surprised him. He looked suspiciously at the lad, who still stood on the
floor with his hat in his hand.

"You're not going yet, Islay?" said he, and there was no answer.

"Have you two quarrelled?" he asked, again glancing at his daughter's
averted face.

Young Islay stammered his reply. "I have been a fool, General, that's
all," said he. "I brought the manners of the Inn, as your daughter says,
into your house, and--"

The father caught him by the sleeve and bent a most stern eye.

"Well, well?" he pushed.

"And--the rest, I think, should be between yourself and me," said Young
Islay, looking at Nan now with her back to them, and he and the father
went out of the room.

CHAPTER XXV--THE EAVESDROPPER

There was no moon, but the sky hung thick with stars, and the evening
was a rare dusk where bush and tree stood half revealed, things
sinister, concealing the terrific elements of dreams. Over the hills
came Gilian, a passionate pilgrim of the night. The steeps, the gullies,
the hazel thickets he trod were scarcely real for him, he passed them
as if in a swoon, he felt himself supreme, able to step from ben to ben,
inspired by the one exaltation that puts man above all toils, fears,
weariness and doubts, brother of the April eagle, cousin-german of the
remote and soaring star.

He approached the house of Maam by a rough sheep-path along the side of
the burn, leaped from boulder to boulder to keep the lights of the house
in view, brushed eagerly through the bracken, ran masterfully in the
flats. When he came close to the house, caution was necessary lest late
harvesters should discover him. He went round on the outside of the
orchard hedge, behind the milk-house wall, and stood in the concealment
of a little alder planting. The house was lit in several windows, it
struck--thought he--warm upon a neck and flashed back in a melting eye
within; his heart drummed furiousl