'That you can be freed from the trammels of your father's will—free, and the inheritrix of your own great wealth.'
She regarded him for a minute with blank astonishment; then as bright joy like sunshine spread over her sweet face and sparkled in the depth of her eyes, she exclaimed, in a low voice,
'Free, do you say, free in my own actions, and free to bestow papa's money how and on whom I please?'
'On whom you please,' replied Allan, thinking with intense mortification on Holcroft, and Holcroft only; for personally he was far above thinking of the fortune that might otherwise be his own, as the stars are above the earth. 'Let me but see all this matter fully arranged and then I shall be content,' said he, after a pause, during which they had been regarding each other; he, her with sadness, and she him with bewilderment. 'There are rumours in the air of a turn-up with the Turks, and of a war in Egypt, and right glad I am of that!'
'Why, Allan?'
'Because I'll get attached to the first army corps that sails, even if the Black Watch is not going; but that it is sure to be, as, thank God! the dear old corps is always in everything.'
'And why this joy?'
'To get as far away from you as possible,' he replied, bluntly, in a hollow tone.
'Must you do so, Allan?'
'Yes, unless I mean to drive myself mad.'