He thought it over gloomily; it was part of the curse over the Dalrymples, perchance, part of the bitter curse that at last, after he had stifled the miseries of his personal tragedies with brilliant, mighty success, he should be pulled to ruin by some unknown enemy.
He had seated himself in front of one of the great mirrors and gazed frowningly at the company; his wife passed with Tom Wharton; he took no heed of her save to wonder bitterly what she would do were he ruined, if such a wild thing happened and he was brought low. What would she do? He thought grimly that her company would not trouble him in that case; doubtless she would be glad of the scandal of his disgrace to cover the scandal of her desertion; the thin chain that held her would be snapped, when the world turned on him so would she; he was sure of it, and he reflected how easily his fortunes, his name, his honor could be pulled to the dust if Tweeddale and his faction triumphed.
But his arrogance dismissed even the shadow of humiliation; he had been howled at, reviled, threatened before; this storm would pass as others had done; he had weathered too much for a paltry matter such as this Glencoe affair to overthrow him.
With the calm of his conscious pride he looked round on the brilliant crowd. He was well aware that most of them were his ill-wishers, he would not have been to the trouble of turning his head to conciliate one of them; they might say what they would of him, he would stoop to neither justification nor defense.
As the music recommenced, his wife advanced into the recess. She seemed agitated and to hesitate, and paused looking at him strangely.
“The things they say!” she breathed quickly. “Have you heard?”
His face hardened, disdaining to answer. He glanced away, but she, ignoring the repulse, crossed the polished floor with a sweep of satin and put her hand on the back of his chair.
“It is not true, my lord,” she asked, “this tale—it is some slander of the Jacobites?”
He looked at her sideways in a manner that made her blench.
“Has my Lord Wharton been giving you his version of this tale?” he asked.