He unfolded the pages of the "Daily Telegraph," and had Isla happened to glance round at the moment she must have discovered that something fresh and terrible had happened.
On the first page this paragraph confronted Rosmead's eyes under large head-lines:--
"TRAGEDY IN SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS.
"A sad occurrence took place yesterday on Loch Earn in Western Perthshire--one of those deplorable accidents which show what care should be taken in handling small boats on these treacherous inland seas. Full particulars are not to hand, but it seems that late last evening Mr. Malcolm Mackinnon of Achree and Glenogle, who had been in Lochearnhead earlier in the day, left there, ostensibly to go to his home at the Lodge of Creagh, four miles distant. That he had not done so was clearly evidenced by the fact that his body was found by a boatman, washed up on the shores of Loch Earn at a point about two miles from its head. The boat, bottom upwards, was floating near. The day had been one of the very stormiest of the season, with blinding showers and a squally wind. Mr. Mackinnon was a skilled oarsman, but it is supposed that he had been caught by one of the sudden squalls which so frequently rise on these Highland lochs and constitute a danger that it is necessary to guard against. It is not known why Mr. Mackinnon should have gone on the loch late in the afternoon, and he had no fishing gear with him. The occurrence has cast a gloom over the whole Glen, where the family are so well known and so beloved. The tragedy is accentuated by the fact that Mr. Mackinnon had only recently become engaged to Mrs. Rodney Payne, whose family are the present tenants of Achree. We understand that Mr. Mackinnon's only sister is at present abroad. Much sympathy is felt and expressed for her."
Rosmead, with the paper held high in front of him. stared steadily at it, his face very white and set, his lips twitching. It was a full minute before he obtained complete control of himself and dared to glance over the edge of the paper at his companion.
But she apparently had forgotten him. Her chin was resting on her hand, and her eyes were fixed upon the landscape, bathed in sunshine, which was speeding past them. She did not even look round when he carefully folded the paper and put it well under his travelling-rug in the tar corner of the rack. Then he lifted the "Times" and glanced through it, only to find on the second page the same item of intelligence considerably condensed. That also he removed, and took up one of the magazines.
He was totally unaware that he was holding it upside down. He had to find some way out of this awful difficulty--to coin words which would acquaint Isla with what seemed to be the final tragedy of her life. He was scarcely alive to the fact that he now learned for the first time of Mackinnon's engagement to Vivien, the letter informing him of it having only reached America the day after he had left it.
He had concern only for one at the moment, and his sole consideration was how to break the news to her. One moment he thought of giving her the newspaper casually, and thus getting over it; the next he thought he would keep it from her to the last moment. But they were speeding towards Glenogle, where the last act of Malcolm Mackinnon's tragic life had been played.
Presently Isla turned to him with a smile.
"It is very pleasant to be going home, don't you think? I was just counting how many weeks I had been out of Glenogle and thinking how glad I shall be to see it again. When I left it I never thought I should wish to come back any more."