ng against the branch on which she roosted, gave a solitary cry of
angry alarm; the dogs barked in the distant farms; the grazing cows,
tethered in the wayside pastures, made soft noises as they cropped the
grass. Passing on by the old grammar school of S. Manelier and then
through the village of Five Oaks, where he scared a quiet family
assembled in their parlour by looking in at their window with a grimace
and a wild scream, he ran on rapidly by the Town Mills and through the
town towards the quay. When he reached the bridge-head the tide was
ebbing; but partly walking, partly wading, he made good his footing on
the Castle-rock. A sleepy sentry challenged, but the page crept through
the darkness without deigning a reply. A ball whizzed through his hat,
but did not check his progress. Availing himself of projections in the
wall with which he seemed well acquainted, he entered his own little
room by the open casement, and throwing himself on the pallet soon slept
the sleep of youth and healthy fatigue.

At Maufant matters were not quite so peaceful. The ladies there, it may
be feared, were ready enough to regret the page's visit and its
consequences, if not to express that regret to the old friend who might
with some cause have complained.

Pretending indifference, he sate silently in a seat further from the
ladies than that which he had occupied before the page's intrusion.
Finding him disinclined for talk, Rose read her husband's letter without
taking any further notice of him by whom it had been brought.

At length she broke the awkward silence; replacing the letter in her
bosom and turning to Alain, she said:--

"I must go and get your chamber ready. I shall be back anon." And she
left the room by the concealed door.

Left alone with his mistress, Alain fell into a great embarrassment.
Marguerite, for her part, felt a qualm of conscience, had he only known
it. But her _amour-propre_ was, none the less, extremely hurt by his
cavalier treatment of her flowers. She was by no means in love with the
saucy Scot, who had indeed given her some offence by the frankness of
his leave-taking, though this was a matter of which she was not
likely to complain, least of all to her official adorer.

"_Pourquoi me boudez-vous, Monsieur_?" at last she said; "are you
perhaps permitting yourself to be offended at my seeing M. Elliot to the
door? Do you not know that he is our old friend?"

"He is nothing to me," answered Alain, m