"M'Lean visited us often; and when his great gilded birlinn, with his banner waving, the pipers playing in the prow, the oarsmen chanting as they bent to the wave, the axes of his Leine Chrios sparkling in the sun, swept down the Sound of Ulva, she more than once stung me to the soul by drawing a cold comparison between his state and mine.
"Una was not content. I redoubled my efforts to procure luxuries for her, and exacted a heavy kain from my poor tenants, that I might barter with the English traders for silks and velvets, and with the Norwegians for fine furs and broadcloths; the finest gloves from Perth, the finest laces from Glasgow, the fairest pearls from Cluny, the most sparkling stones from Cairngorm—our Scottish jaspers, topazes, and amethysts—were procured for her. I parted with my father's Spanish gun (which he received from Dunvegan, when he destroyed the Florida, the great Spanish treasure-ship)—I parted with my Florida, the great Spanish treasure-ship)—I parted with my best coat of harness—my polished lurich, with all its rings of steel—to procure for her ornaments and passements, such trumpery and trash as had not been seen in the Isles since the days of Alexander the Great Steward.
"We had visited our chief; the splendour and luxuries of his mansion dwelt long in her mind, and my exertions were unavailing.
"Yet I redoubled my efforts and exchanged my wild ponies and short-legged cattle for the luxuries brought to the Clyde by the merchants of Bordeaux and the Flemings of the Dam. M'Lean came often to visit us—and always when I chanced to be absent, hunting in Mull, or in my birlinn on the Sound, looking after my fishermen.
"I saw little to suspect; but I dreaded much, and thought more. Una was often pensive, cold, and irritable. Then a pain gnawed my heart, and a whisper that seemed to come from hell ascended to my ear. I was jealous—jealous of this bright being, whom I loved with my whole heart: for, I could perceive that, though she sometimes smiled on me, her smile was ever brightest when the birlinn of M'Lean was seen upon the Sound, sweeping down between the isles, with banner flaunting, and oars, shields, and axes flashing in the sun.
"'Una!' said I, one day, making a terrible effort to suppress my rising passion; 'you look after M'Lean as if you had never seen him before.'
"'Ah!' said she with a smile, 'I know that a Highland matron should only have eyes for her husband—for the man she loves. Surely, dear Angus, you are not jealous of me?'
"'No, Una—true love has no jealousy.' (I knew that I spoke false.)
"'It has—it must—just to infuse a little life into it!'
"Then she playfully kissed my cheek, saying—