dancer out of
France.

There were seasons when I could have sworn that she had no thought save
for Danvers. I have known her to watch for his coming, to grow restless
if his visits were a bit later than expected, to regard him with happy
and glowing eyes, and to rest in his presence in a way that flattered
him and drew him to her with such a passion of love showing in his fine
face that I had joy in the mere sight of him. But these times would
pass, and mayhap in a week or less she would be at the Latinity with
the duke, heated in her enthusiasm for him, encouraging him in his
tale-telling, with gleaming eyes and audacious rejoinders. At these
times Dandy fell back for company upon his cousin Isabel, and I have
met them frequently riding or driving together, she with a happy,
radiant face, and he with the brooding devil in his eye and a sullen
look in the smile with which he greeted me.

In his frequent absences from Edinburgh the duke never allowed Nancy's
thoughts to wander from him long. A book by special post, an exquisite
volume of Fergusson, hand-printed, some foreign posies in a pot, an
invitation to come with a party of his English friends to the
Highlands, and he added:

"I am sending the list of the guests to your Royal Highness, and if
there be some who are not to your liking, I pray you cross them off.
Following here," he went on, "the custom usual when one invites Royalty
to one's home," playing all the moves which a man knows who has wooed
and won many times, but, as it seemed to me, with a real feeling in the
game.

At this sort of thing Dandy was a poor rival by reason of his pride,
and matters were at something like a gloomy standstill between him and
Nancy when I called Sandy into consultation.

"Tragedy will come of it," I tried at length; "but by my hope of Heaven
I know no way to handle the affair. Deny the duke the house, and what
have ye done to a girl of spirit? Urged her into his arms, and nothing
else----"

Sandy's talk was all on Nancy's side, however, which made the situation
a bit easier for me.

"You see, it's thiswise with most women," said he. "Give them a husband
to dandle them, and some children for them to dandle themselves, and a
house to potter round, with some baubles to wear when they're young,
and some money in the bank when they're old, and they go along with
small agitation of mind until the grave. Not that I'm discounting their
value. They're a good conservative eleme