? and was it not terribly expensive
to have such a protection? Could not he tell the cost of a wooden
fence? Why did they not use wire netting? Was not that a loch away
down there? and what was its name? A loch without a name! Did the
salmon come up to it? and did any sea-birds ever come inland and build
their nests on its margin?

"Oh, Bras, you must come and look at the loch. It is a long time since
you will see a loch."

And away she went through the thick breckan, holding on to the swaying
leash that held the galloping greyhound, and running swiftly as though
she had been making down for the shore to get out the Maighdean-mhara.

"Sheila," called her husband, "don't be foolish!"

"Sheila," called Ingram, "have pity on an old man!"

Suddenly she stopped. A brace of partridges had sprung up at some
little distance, and with a wild whirr of their wings were now
directing their low and rapid flight toward the bottom of the valley.

"What birds are those?" she said peremptorily.

She took no notice of the fact that her companions were pretty nearly
too blown to speak. There was a brisk life and color in her face, and
all her attention was absorbed in watching the flight of the birds.
Lavender fancied he saw in the fixed and keen look something of old
Mackenzie's gray eye: it was the first trace of a likeness to her
father he had seen.

"You bad girl!" he said, "they are partridges."

She paid no heed to this reproach, for what were those other things
over there underneath the trees? Bras had pricked up his ears, and
there was a strange excitement in his look and in his trembling frame.

"Deer!" she cried, with her eyes as fixed as were those of the dog
beside her.

"Well," said her husband calmly, "what although they are deer?"

"But Bras--" she said; and with that she caught the leash with both
her hands.

"Bras won't mind them if you keep him quiet. I suppose you can manage
him better than I can. I wish we had brought a whip."

"I would rather let him kill every deer in the Park than touch him
with a whip," said Sheila proudly.

"You fearful creature, you don't know what you say. That is high
treason. If George Ranger heard you, he would have you hanged in front
of the Star and Garter."

"Who is George Ranger?" said Sheila with an air, as if she had said,
"Do you know that I am the daughter of the King of Borva, and whoever
touches me will have to answer to my papa, who is not afraid of any
George