“Your impudence!” repeated Gilian, “were you in that mood?”
“Oh, well, you know—I had the boldness to——
“To what?” said Gilian; apprehending some disaster.
“Just a trifle,” said Young Islay, shrewdly affecting indifference. “A soldier’s compliment; we are too ready with them in barrack-yards, you know.” And he sighed as he remembered the red ripe lips, the warm breath on his face, and the tingling influence of the skin he touched under the kerchief.
They walked on in silence again for a while. The night grew dark with gathering clouds. Lights far out at sea showed the trailing fishers; a flaring torch told of a trawler’s evening fortune made already. And soon they were at the Duke’s lodge and Gilian’s way up Glen Aray lay before him. He was pausing to say good-night, confused, troubled by what he had heard, feeling he must confess his own regard for the girl and not let this comparative stranger so buoyantly outdo him in admiration.
“Now,” said he, hesitating, “what would you think I was in Glen Shira myself for?”
“Eh?” said Young Islay, scarcely hearing, and he hummed the refrain of the lady’s song.
“In Glen Shira; what was I doing there?” repeated Gilian. He wanted no answer. “It was on the odd chance that I might see Miss Nan. We are not altogether without some taste in these parts, though wanting the advantage of travel and garrison gallantry. I was in the garden when you were inside. I heard her singing, and I think I got closer on herself and her song than you did.”
“My dear Gilian,” said Young Islay, “I once fought you for less than that.” He laughed as he said it. “If you mean,” he went on, “that you are in love with Miss Nan, that’s nothing to wonder at, the miracle would be for you to be indifferent. We’re in the same hunt, are we then? Well, luck to the winner! I can say no fairer than that. Only you’ll have to look sharp, my boy, for I’m not going to lose any time, I assure you. If you’re going to do all your courtship of yon lady from outside her window, you’ll not make much progress, I’m thinking. Good-night; good-night!” He went off laughing, and when he had gone away a few yards Gilian, walking slowly homewards, heard him break whistling into the air that Nan had sung in the parlour of Maam.