“I lose patience with you! You make a jest of everything. Tell me this much: Do you or do you not know her present address?”
“I know precisely where she is to be found at the present moment,” said David, speaking now with gravity.
“Well, and have you been there to see her? Have you written to her there? Have you given her the slightest sign since she has been there of any desire on your part to ever see her again?”
“I must answer ‘No’ to each question, I am afraid,” he responded, and had the grace to hang his head.
His evident humility only momentarily impressed her. “I am disappointed in you,” she said. “Where will you find a sweeter or truer woman? Don’t think I am throwing her at your head! Quite the contrary. If you were to ask for her now, I should advise with all my might against you. But you have behaved like a simpleton. I am going to have her always live with me, or near me. She is my own flesh and blood, and I love her as if she were my sister. She doesn’t know, as yet, that I am aware of the relationship; but I have written to her this very morning, telling her to come and see me to-night, when I get back. I am going to spend some money in Scotland.”
“It will be profoundly appreciated, believe me.”
She sniffed at his interjection. “I intend to buy land right and left in Elgin, and if Skirl Castle isn’t good enough—I don’t think much of it from the photographs—we’ll build a bigger one, and we’ll make that whole section hum; and Vestalia shall be as big an heiress as it contains, and the lucky man who marries her shall be treated like a brother of mine and Archie’s. And that is what you have thrown away. I say it to you frankly, because it is all over so far as you are concerned. She will listen to me, and my mind is quite made up—and papa can tell you what that means!”
“Even if your decision were not irrevocable,” said David, solemnly, “my answer would of necessity be the same. I would do much to please you, but I do not see my way to marrying your cousin.”
They had paused to exchange these last sentences, and now upon the instant the Earl and his elderly companion came up. David essayed a revelatory wink to the nobleman, but it fell upon the stony places in Lord Drum-pipes wondering stare.
Mr. Skinner wiped his brow decorously, and breathed appreciation of the halt. “Sir,” he began, addressing David, “I must assume that I am enjoying the opportunity of studying a district of England peculiarly favoured by Nature, and exceptionally embellished as well by the hand of man; but I wish to give expression to emotions of unmixed delight at all that I observe about me. We have inspected the internal appointments of the ancient hostelry, and have revelled, sir, in the luxurious yet studiously regulated beauties of this garden, and I confess that the novelty of the one and the charm of the other far surpass anything——”