"That was the place the Doctor was anxious to veesit," said the Laird, who was immediately behind them. "Ay. Oh, yes, we will show Miss Mary Loch Hourn; she will get some material for sketches there, depend on't. Just the finest loch in the whole of the Highlands. When I can get Tom Galbraith first of all persuaded to see Bunessan——"
But we heard no more about Tom Galbraith. Queen Titania had uttered a slight exclamation as she glanced over the addresses of the letters directed to her.
"From Angus!" she said, as she hurriedly opened one of the envelopes, and ran her eye over the contents.
Then her face grew grave, and inadvertently she turned to the Laird.
"In three days," she said, "he was to start for Italy."
She looked at the date.
"He must have left London already!" said she, and then she examined the letter further. "And he does not say where he is going."
The Laird looked grave too—for a second. But he was an excellent actor. He began whistling the air that his hostess had been playing. He turned over his letters and papers carelessly. At length he said, with an air of fine indifference—
"The grand thing of being away at sea is to teach ye the comparateevely trifling importance of anything that can happen on land."
He tossed the unopened letters about, only regarding the addresses.