oway, and his friendship
with the heir of their estates.

It seemed to me that Louis was entirely safe, especially in the good
hands of the Lord Lieutenant, and that the great rewards which Lalor
Maitland had received from the Government constituted in some measure
the best security against any dangerous plotting.

And in all the electoral campaign that followed, certain it is that
Lalor showed only his amiable side, taking all that was said against him
with a smiling face, yet as ready with his sword as with his tongue, and
so far as courage went (it must be allowed) in no way disgracing the old
and well-respected name of the Maitlands of Marnhoul. But I must tell
you of the fate which befell the jewel he had left in my hands for Irma.
Whether it had ever belonged to the family of Maitland or not, I should
greatly doubt. It was a hoop of rubies set with brilliants, which at
will could make a bracelet for the wrist, or a kind of tiara for the
hair. It was placed in a lined box of morocco leather, called an
"ecrin," and stood out as beautifully against the faded blue of the
velvet as a little tangled wisp of sunset cloud lost in an evening sky.

But Irma flashed out when I showed it her.

"How dare you?" she cried, and seizing the box she shut it with a snap
like her own white teeth. Then, the window being open, she threw it into
the low shrubbery at the orchard end, whence, after she had gone to
baby, I had no great trouble in recovering it. For it seemed to me too
good to waste, and would certainly be of more use to me than to the
first yokel who should pass that way.

Under ordinary circumstances Lalor would certainly have been defeated.
First of all, though doubtless belonging to an ancient family of the
country, he was, with his gilded coach and display of wealth gotten no
one could just say how or where, in speech and look an outsider. His
opponent, Colonel MacTaggart of the Stroan, called familiarly "The
Cornel" was one of the brave, sound, stupid, jovial country gentlemen
who rode once a week to market at Dumfries, never missed a Court day at
Kirkcudbright, did his duty honourably in a sufficiently narrow round,
and was worshipped by his tenantry, with whose families he was on terms
of extraordinary fondness and friendship. Altogether, to use the vulgar
idiom, "The Cornel" was felt to be a safe man to "bring back Galloway
fish-guts to Galloway sea-maws." Or, in other words, he would see to it
that patronage,