"A gentleman?" said Lady Keith, inquiringly.
"Certain, my lady! and as up and down spoken as if he was a prince of the blood; he's somebody that is not accustomed to be said 'no' to for sure."
Lady Keith hesitated. Recollecting, however, that she had just left Ellen safe in the music-room, she made up her mind, and desired Porterfield to show the stranger in. As he entered, unannounced, her eyes unwillingly verified the butler's judgment; and to the inquiry whether he might see Miss Lindsay, she answered very politely, though with regrets, that Miss Lindsay was engaged.
"May I be pardoned for asking," said the stranger, with the slightest possible approach to a smile, "whether that decision is imperative? I leave Scotland to-morrow my reasons for wishing to see Miss Lindsay this evening are urgent."
Lady Keith could hardly believe her ears, or command her countenance to keep company with her expressions of "sorrow that it was impossible Miss Lindsay could not have the pleasure that evening."
"May I beg, then, to know at what hour I may hope to see her to-morrow?"
Hastily resolving that Ellen should on the morrow accept a long-given invitation, Lady Keith answered that "she would not be in town she would leave Edinburgh at an early hour."
The stranger bowed and withdrew; that was all the bystanders saw. But Lady Keith, who had winced under an eye that she could not help fancying read her too well, saw that in his parting look which made her uneasy; beckoning a servant who stood near, she ordered him to wait upon that gentleman to the door.
The man obeyed; but the stranger did not take his cloak, and made no motion to go.
"No, Sir! not that way," he said, sternly, as the servant laid his hand on the lock; "show me to Miss Lindsay!"