“Get up at once,” she cried, “and march back with us. If you make the least attempt to escape, that noble dog shall tear your windpipe out!”
Very sulkily the tramp obeyed.
“I’m clean copped. Confound your beast of a dog!”
Within a few yards of her own door they met a policeman, who on hearing of the assault speedily marched the prisoner off to gaol.
When she related the adventure to her uncle he was delighted beyond measure, and must needs bless her and kiss her.
They had parted with the carriage. Needs must where poverty and the devil drives! But they still had a little phaeton, and in this the old man and his niece enjoyed many a delightful drive. He would take her to concerts, too, and to the theatre also, so that, on the whole, life was by no means a galling load to anyone.
But a very frequent visitor at McLeod Cottage was Laird Fletcher. Not only so, but he took the old man and Annie frequently out by train. His carriage would be waiting at the station, and in this they drove away to his beautiful home.
The house itself was modern, but the grounds, under the sweet joy of June, looked beautiful indeed. It was at some considerable distance from the main road, and so in the gardens all was delightfully still, save for the music of happy song-birds or the purr of the turtle-dove, sounding low from the spreading cedars.
“A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
For ever flushing round a summer sky.
There eke the soft delights, that witchingly
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures always hovered nigh;
But whate’er smacked of ’noyance or unrest
Was far, far off expelled from this delicious nest.”