"Sir Thomas and Lady Mackinnon are still across the Channel, I think. I saw in the News one night lately that they are not expected at Barras till November?"
"That's right, I believe," said Isla.
"Are you joining them?"
"Not just yet."
Cattanach scrutinized her rather closely. He did not know how far she might stand questioning, but he gathered from a certain quiet determination in her manner that she had some quite definite plan in her mind.
"Mr. Cattanach," said Isla clearly, "you have always been kind to me and have understood things right through. I can never forget how kind you were just before my brother came home. I can't go on living at Creagh with him any longer."
"I'm not surprised. I've been expecting to hear this for some time."
"I'm a dependent on his bounty. I ought not to have been left like that, but I don't want to grumble about it. He thinks I'm going to Wimereaux to my aunt and uncle. But I have no such intention."
"Indeed! I hope that you have at least some satisfactory haven in view, Miss Mackinnon," he said, with distinct anxiety in his voice.
"I have several very clear ideas. To-night I shall stay at the Euston Hotel and to-morrow I shall go to an old servant of Achree who is married in the West End of London. She keeps a boarding-house. From her house it is my intention to seek some employment."