order nor threaten violence.

It was a great relief to Annie that he did not go. She needed the
opportunity of the walk to prepare the President to meet his old
acquaintance, and to speak wisely to her.

Even the President, with his habitual self-possession, could not conceal
his embarrassment at the change in Lady Carse. The light from the
window shone upon her face; yet he glanced at the widow, as in doubt
whether this could be the right person, before he made his complaints.
In the midst of her agitation at the meeting, Lady Carse said to herself
that the good man was losing his memory; and, indeed, it was time; for
he must be above sixty. She wondered whether it was a sign that her
husband might be losing his faculties too: but she feared Duncan Forbes
was a good deal the older of the two.

It would have astonished those who did not know Duncan Forbes to see him
now. He was a fugitive from the rebels, who might at the moment be
burning his house, and impoverishing his tenants; he had been wandering
in the mountains for many days, and had spent the last night upon the
sea; his clothes were weather-stained, his periwig damp, and his buckles
rusted; he was at the moment weary and aching with cold and hunger; he
was in the presence of a lady whom he had for years supposed dead and
buried; and he was under the shock of seeing a face once full of health
and animation now not only wasted, but alive with misery in every fibre:
yet he sat on a bench in this island dwelling--in his eyes a hovel--with
his gold-headed cane between his knees, talking with all the courtesy,
calmness, and measured cheerfulness, which Edinburgh knew so well.
Nothing could be better for Lady Carse than his manner. It actually
took away the sense of wonder at their meeting, and meeting thus. While
he had stood at the threshold, and she heard whom she was to see, her
brain had reeled, and her countenance had become such as it might well
dismay him to see; but such was the influence of his composure, and of
the associations which his presence revived, that she soon appeared in
Annie's eyes a totally altered person. As the two sat at breakfast,
Annie saw before her the gentleman and lady complete, in spite of every
disguise of dress and circumstance.

At the close of the meal, Annie slipped away to her own house: but it
was not long before she was sent for, at the desire, not of Lady Carse,
but of the President. He wished her to hear what he