Sir Alexander broke in with curses on himself for having ever been persuaded into involving himself in such a business.
“By the desire, I presume, of Lord Carse, Lord Lovat, Mr Forster, and others, not now particularly distinguished for their loyalty.”
“That is the cursed part of it,” muttered Sir Alexander. “It was to further their Jacobite plots that they put this vixen out of the way, because she had some secrets in her power, and they laid it all on her temper, which, they told me, caused my lord to go in fear of his reputation and his life.”
“There was truth in that, to my knowledge,” observed the President; “and there were considerations connected with the daughters—natural considerations, though leading to unnatural cruelty.”
“Politics were at the bottom, for all that,” said the chief, “And now, as she has been my prisoner for so long, I suppose they will throw the whole responsibility upon me. The rebel leaders hate me for my loyalty as they hate the devil. They hate me—”
“As they hate Lord Loudon and myself,” interposed the President, “which they do, I take it, much more bitterly than they ever did the devil. But, Sir Alexander, let me point out to you that your course in regard to this lady is now clear. If the rebellion succeeds, let the leaders find that you have taken out of their hands this weapon, which they might otherwise use for your destruction. Let them find you acting with me in restoring the lady to her rights. If, as I anticipate, the rebellion is yet to fail, this is still your only safe course. It will afford you the best chance of impunity—which impunity, however, it is not for me to promise—for the illegality and the guilt of your past conduct to the victim. There is something in our friend’s countenance here,” he continued, turning to the widow with a smile, “which I should like to understand. I fear I have not her good opinion, as I could wish.”
Annie told exactly what she was thinking: that all this reasoning was wrong, because wasteful of the right. Surely it was the shortest and clearest thing to say that, late as it was, it was better for Sir Alexander to begin doing right than persist in the wrong.
“I quite agree with you,” said the President, “and if people generally were like you, we should be saved most of the argumentation of our law courts—if, indeed, we should need the courts at all, or, perhaps, even any human law. Come, Sir Alexander, let me beg your company to call on Lady Carse. One needs the countenance of the chief, who is always and everywhere welcome in his own territory, to excuse so early a visit.”
Sir Alexander positively declined going. He was, in truth, afraid of the lady’s tongue in the presence of a legal functionary, before whom he could neither order nor threaten violence.
It was a great relief to Annie that he did not go. She needed the opportunity of the walk to prepare the President to meet his old acquaintance, and to speak wisely to her.