4 A Mental Struggle.
U])on her plate, and her mind wanders with a swift but
sorrowful rapidity over many things that of late have como
to trouble the harmony of her hitherto almost perfect life.
To be entirely happy from birth to death is not allowed to
any human thing.
" I think I must go now, dearest," she says softly,
rousing Sir Hugh from his reverie. Fjhe unclasps her
hand from his, and, rising, moves gently from the I'oom
and up to Imogen's studio to consult with her. She is
sure of the girl's sympathy, Imogen being more aA'erse to
the coming of these visitors than even she can be.
About thirty years ago Sir Hugh Heriot, then a young
man of twenty-three or so, just fallen into his title and the
paltry four thousand a year that accompanied it, had made
up his mind to join a large party who were off to the ' Land
o' Cakes ' for fun and grouse-shooting. There he saw fit to
fly at higher game than that excellent bu-d. Within one
week and three days after his arrival in Scotland he found
himself head over ears in love with the second daughter of
an impecunious S^rotch eaid, who had nc-t so much as a
bawbee to divide between his seven girls. But what are
bawbees when love is in our midst ? Heriot, like a true
lover, forgot that such sordid things existed, and .spent a
long hour at the end of those ten momentous days persuad¬
ing his Olivia to for.sake her native land and return with
him to his Devonshire home.
He Avas tall, handsome, well-favoured, and altogether about
as nice a young man as one could meet. And j^resently it
came about that Lady Olivia in bed one night, under cover
of the friendly darkness, confided to her younger sister (a
most delightful girl, in spite of her red hair) that Hugh
Heriot was the dearest fellow in all the world—the only
man she should ever care for; and that—that he had
hinted at things, and that if he didn't mean that he really
loved her they might dig her grave without further delay
in the nearest churchyard; and, finally, that he had said
to her that evening in the garden so-and-so and so-and-so,
and ever so many other things besides. And did Janet
really—really think-------
She had paused there, and had left her own bed and
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