"I dare say you have heard from Drummond about his visit to me the other day. I have tried to write lots of times, but I haven't got the gift of the pen and I found it difficult to get words.
"Of course, I am glad, Isla, for Drummond is a ripping good chap and his prospects are rather splendid. You who are living with Lady Betty know what sort of fairy godmother she is to them. What I like best of all to think of is you as mistress at Garrion with plenty of money at your command. It will suit you down to the ground. There is no doubt that, as a family, we Mackinnons have been cursed through lack of money. It is easy to be good when one has plenty and nothing to worry about.
"I have waited, half hoping you would write first. But as you haven't, will you take this letter as an expression of my affectionate good will? We haven't quite understood each other up till now, but things are going to be better in future.
"I also have a bit of news for you, and I am wondering whether or not it will be a great surprise. Vivien Rosmead has promised to marry me, and we are not going to wait long--only until her brother comes home, which may be any day now. The last letters say that the initial difficulties of his bridge-building have been overcome and that he can be spared--at least for a few weeks.
"I hardly know how or what to write about this, Isla, because it is a thing that a man has a natural diffidence in speaking of. You know what Vivien is--how good, how far above me. I will try honestly to be worthy of her. I think I have convinced her of my sincerity.
"Of course she has a large private fortune, which will lift all the burdens off the old place and make it possible for us to start the new life unencumbered. The luck of the Mackinnons has turned at last and, after all our troubles, we may surely look forward to a little run of prosperity and peace. I hope you'll write to Vivien, even if you don't to me. I'm sure she expects it."
Isla dropped the sheet on her lap, and her eyes swept the blue line of the sea a little wildly. The colour which the soft southern air and the restful life had wooed back to her face receded and left it a little grey. The old terror, the vague, haunting dread crept over her once more, and so insistent was it that she could not push it away.
Had the luck of the Mackinnons really turned? She was pledged to marry Neil Drummond, perhaps in two months' time, and there was not an atom of joyful anticipation in her heart. Malcolm was engaged to Vivien Rosmead, and what would be the end?
In the whole of Malcolm's letter there was not one reference to the past. She knew him too well to hope for a moment that he had laid it bare to Vivien Rosmead--nay, rather was she certain that he had trusted to luck. The purple lady!--the vision of her arose before Isla's eyes and shut out the incomparable view of the terraced garden, the blossoming trees, the wide blue sweep of the southern sea.
A quick tap on the window pane attracted her attention, and, looking up, she beheld Lady Betty beckoning to her sharply. She rose slowly, picked up the letter, and went in through the open window.