The meal ended, they wandered out to the lawn to smoke, and Wratislaw
found himself standing with a hand on his host's shoulder. He noticed
something distraught in his glance and air.

"Are you fit again to-day?" he asked.

"Quite fit, thanks," said Lewis, but his face belied him. He had
forgiven himself the incident of yesterday, but no proof of a non
sequitur could make him relinquish his dismal verdict. The wide morning
landscape lay green and soothing at his feet. Down in the glen men were
winning the bog-hay; up on the hill slopes they were driving lambs; the
Avelin hurried to the Gled, and beyond was the great ocean and the
infinite works of man. The whole brave bustling world was astir, little
and great ships hasting out of port, the soldier scaling the breach, the
adventurer travelling the deserts. And he, the fool, had no share in
this braggart heritage. He could not dare to look a man straight in the
face, for like the king in the old fable he had lost his soul.

CHAPTER XIV

A GENTLEMAN IN STRAITS

The fall of the leaf found Etterick very full of people, and new
dwellers in Glenavelin. The invitations were of old standing, but Lewis
found their fulfilment a pleasant trick of Fortune's. To keep a
bustling household in good spirits leaves small room for brooding, and
he was famous for his hospitality. The partridges were plentiful that
year, and a rainless autumn had come on the heels of a fine summer. So
life went pleasantly with all, and the master of the place cloaked a
very sick heart under a ready good-humour.

His thoughts were always on Glenavelin, and when he happened to be near
it he used to look with anxious eyes for a slim figure which was rarely
out of his fancy. He had not seen Alice since the accident, save for
one short minute, when riding from Gledsmuir he had passed her one
afternoon at the Glenavelin gates. He had earnestly desired to stop,
but his curious cowardice had made him pass with a lifted hat and a
hasty smile. Could he have looked back, he might have seen the girl
watching him out of sight with tearful eyes. To himself he was the
hopeless lover, and she the scornful lady, while she in her own eyes was
the unhappy girl for whom the soldier in the song shakes his bridle
reins and cries an eternal adieu.

Matters did not improve when the Manorwaters left and Mr. Wishart
himself came down, bringing with him Stocks, a certain Mr. Andrews and
his wife, and an excellent young