s
sapping her vitality; and I closed my eyes to sleep that night with a
feeling of gratitude to my Heavenly Father that the Burns business was
by with forever.

* * * * *

Toward noon of the next day I discovered my mistake. Smoking by the
fire in the chimney corner of the hall, I heard a clattering of horses'
hoofs on the gravel outside, and from the window saw Danvers Carmichael
throw the reins to his groom, run up the steps of the main entrance,
and ask for Miss Stair in a voice strangely unlike his usual one. I
knew that Nancy was sitting with some lace-work in her own
writing-room, and hoped much from their meeting, and that her recent
experience, which made her set a new value on Danvers, would bring
about a more complete understanding between them.

"Ah, Dandy!" said Nancy, her voice having a ring of pleasure in it.
"When did you return from Glasgow?"

"Late yesterday," he answered. "I dined at the club in town and rode
home about ten. I'm thinking of leaving Arran for a time," he said,
coldly.

"Why didn't you stop?" she asked, with some surprise.

"I was in no mood for visiting last night."

"You were ill, or worried?" Nancy inquired anxiously.

"Worried, ill," he answered. "Ill, and ashamed, and miserable, in a
way, please God, most men may never know."

"What is it, Dandy?" and I saw that at his vehemence she put her work
on the table and moved toward him.

"Oh!" he cried out, "it's you! It's you! In the month before I went
away I had to endure God only knows what bitterness because of you! And
on my return last night I hear at the club that ye've been off in
Ayrshire visiting Robert Burns! Did ye have a pleasant time?" he asked,
glowering down at her from his great height, handsome and angrier than
I had ever seen him before.

The tone rather than the words struck fire immediately, and Nancy's
eyes took a peculiar significance, boding little good to the one with
whom she was having dealings.

"Very pleasant," she answered, in a voice of ice, picking up her work
and reseating herself.

"Before I went away," Danvers continued, "there was little in the way
of humiliation which I had not endured at your hands! I've seen ye play
fast and loose with half the men in Edinbro'--aye, in the whole of
Scotland, it seems to me! I have heard your name coupled more often
than I can tell with that of the greatest scoundrel in Scotland, and
have held silence concerni