'Do not be pitiless to me; and as for her—that woman—she is married, so, Annabelle——'
'Hush—we are interrupted!'
'They suddenly found themselves environed by groups of idlers, and among others came Mrs. Garth, with Mary and Cecil, all of whom Leslie Fotheringhame would have wished very far away—at least on the cone of Arthur's Seat—at that precise moment.
Face to face again—at last, after all—after all—with Leslie Fotheringhame, Annabelle was thinking; his smile, his voice and presence, were fast bringing back the old and seemingly buried, yet never forgotten love, to thrill her heart and every pulse as in the bygone time!
Her memory, her whole soul seemed to go back more vividly to those hours which neither he nor she had ever forgot, and now, whilst listening to his voice, she seemed to be out in the bright summer sunshine on the rippling waters of the glassy Tay, in his handsome boat with its crimson velvet cushions; she heard the plash of the sculls, the voices of the birds among the graceful silver birches; she saw the dragon-flies again whizz past, and the brown trout leap from the azure stream; and he too was in dreamland, and seemed to hear her voice; as when he first heard it singing:
'Love me always, love me ever,
Said a voice low, sad and sweet;
Love me always, love me ever,
Memory will the words repeat.'
So they parted happily, these two, with hopes to meet again, at least once, before the all-important night of the regimental ball, now close at hand.
That some mysterious change had come over the once nonchalant Leslie Fotheringhame, was soon apparent to the entire mess.
'What the dickens is up now?' said Dick Freeport to Falconer, on this subject; 'I am sure there is a woman in the case; and I am sure that fellow never had a love affair since he joined the regiment, or sought peril by imploring Maud to come into the garden.'
'All the cause of his being more hardly hit now, Dick,' said Falconer, laughing.