Hilda stood watching her with trembling anxiety. Lawrence was also watching her narrowly, and taking apparently a strange pleasure in so doing. At length an idea seemed to strike him.
“I’ll be off, and tell Sir Marcus of his coming guests,” he exclaimed, shuffling out of the room. “He little wots how near at hand they are, and what strange tidings some of them may chance to bring. Ho, ho, ho! you shall reap as you sow; there’s truth in that saying. Ho, ho, ho! ‘The prince will hae his ain again!’”
With these words on his lips he approached the door of Sir Marcus’s chamber. The old man was seated in a large armchair, propped up with cushions, before a blazing fire. His long white hair drawn back, and fastened in a queue behind, exposed his high thin forehead, while his lustreless eyes and fallen jaw showed that the hand of time was pressing heavily on him, and summoning him to conclude his career on earth.
“They’re coming, cousin! they’re coming!” exclaimed Lawrence.
“Who—who?” asked the old man, rousing up, but trembling violently. “Who do you mean, Lawrence?”
“Colonel Armytage and his wife and daughter, whom you sent for, and some gentlemen learned in the law, whom you didn’t send for, I ween. There’ll be strange doings at Lunnasting before long, Sir Marcus. Ho, ho, ho! ‘The prince will hae his ain again, his ain again!’” And Lawrence, shouting and laughing, shuffled out of the room.
Meantime, Hilda had been watching the corvette and the smack. What the former was about to do still remained doubtful, but the latter continued her course till she came to an anchor close in with the mouth of the voe. A boat which Hilda recognised as belonging to Rolf Morton went out to meet her. The smack’s own boat was also lowered, and several people among whom were two ladies, embarked in her.
A tall thin man stepped into Rolfs boat with the air of a sailor, and having shaken him warmly by the hand, assisted in two other gentlemen in black dresses, who showed by their movements that they were far from well accustomed to nautical adventure.
While Rolfs boat proceeded up the voe, the other pulled towards the Lunnasting landing-place. Hilda would fain have watched the proceedings of the corvette, but believing that her sister had arrived she hurried down to meet her. At first she was about to go down to the landing-place, but her courage failed, and she waited in the great hall to receive her guests. At last they entered, ushered in by Lawrence, who kept bowing and flourishing his three-cornered hat before them in a way which seemed more like mockery than respect.
Colonel Armytage approached Hilda with formal respect, but the sisters threw themselves into each other’s arms, and the younger found vent for her feelings in a torrent of tears; but not a drop fell from Hilda’s eye. Edda stood hesitating for a moment, and then threw her arms round her aunt’s neck, and kissed her affectionately.