Hatty laughed.
“It is somebody else, with Hatty,” I went on, “and I don’t quite know how it is with me, Aunt Kezia. I have been feeling for some weeks past as if I had the world on my shoulders.”
“Your shoulders are not strong enough for that, child,” replied my Aunt Kezia. “There is but one shoulder which can carry the world. ‘The government shall be upon His shoulder.’ You may well look poor if you have been at that work. Where are Flora and Miss Keith?—and what has become of their brothers, both?”
“Annas and Flora have just come back to London,” said Hatty. “But Angus is in dreadful trouble, Aunt; and I do not know where Colonel Keith is—with the Prince, I suppose.”
“No, Hatty,” said I. “Aunt Kezia, Angus is safe, but an exile in France; and Colonel Keith lies in Newgate Prison, waiting for death.”
“What do you know about it?” asked Hatty, in an astonished tone.
My Aunt Kezia looked from one of us to the other.
“You cannot both be right,” said she. “I hope you are mistaken, Cary.”
“I have no chance to be so,” I answered; and I heard my voice tremble. “Colonel Keith bought Angus’s freedom with his own life. At least, there is every reason to fear that result, and none to hope.”
“Then that man who escaped was Angus?” asked Hatty.