"Haud yer fule jaw, wi' yer lordships!" exclaimed Janet, in a savage undertone, "the hearing o' him being in this house is just the vera thing to kill her outright. Had he nae part in this sinfu' sheddin' o' blood, for whilk ye will hae a dear account to render?" "Account or none!" answered the trooper, with flashing eyes, "it was done! it is done, and I would not undo it to save my soul!" "The Lord forgie ye, for ye kenna what ye say, man," remonstrated the scandalized Janet. "I know this-that had yonder cursed hound's miserable carcass contained, not only his own existence, but that of all the fanatics in Scotland, I would only the more joyfully have taken every one to purchase an hour of life for Dundee! I would!" And therewith he rose, striking his clenched fist upon his knee, with an oath; and walked noisily and heavily into the other room. His asseveration had been pronounced in so violent a tone as to awaken Alice. "I have slept so pleasantly, and been dreaming. I told you you would not disturb me," she said to Janet, as the latter went to her, almost afraid to show her face under the half-guilty consciousness of the dreadful secret just communicated. "How long have you been gone?" "I hae been here by ye, hinnie, but I'm just ganging doun the stair noo wi' Allan there, that's wakened ye wi' his tramping and roarin'; the grit, unchancy loon! Get out, and I'll come to ye at the stair-head o' the under flat; ye're like the lave o' men-aye doing mair mischief than gude!” said the irascible old woman, in whom any sort of grief or displeasure invariably produced temper, excepting towards Alice. Allan did as desired, after an obeisance to Alice, into which he contrived to infuse as great an amount of respect-perhaps of admiration-as his general manners permitted. Janet installed Lizzie Morison, an intelligent child of eleven, as temporary attendant upon the invalid, with strict orders to summon her, unhesitatingly, if anything unusual were required. "Cousin Janet," said the trooper, as he followed her down the seemingly interminable turnpike, which the descent of each successive floor involved in greater obscurity, "what the devil seized you to make such a pother about doing this bit job for his lordship, poor lad, especially as you must have known the countess and her daughter, since it appears they were great patronesses of yonder pretty girl. Pity she has so short a time to live." "Ask me nae questions, and ye'll hear nae lees," replied Janet, sullenly; but with that sullenness which is rather the exponent of pain than of anger. 66 Humph!" grunted Allan, “You'll never lack wind to cool your brose for all you waste on civil speeches to me, kinswoman. But, od's my life! that's a lovely creature! Poor thing! so young too! The great devil roast me in my own ribs if I don't think her just like an angel!" "It's few eneugh o' angels ye'll ever get leave to see if yon's the gate ye speak of them or to them, ye profane, hellicate swearer!" was the retort-which would have been laughable had not the meaning of the reproof been so respectable. "Gif ye name her name -or sae muckle as speak o' havin spoken wi' her before the airle, I'll just start ye out on to the plainstanes to get bield and bit as ye can-baith o' ye," said Janet, as a final admonition to her much-enduring kinsman, as she pushed him on in front along the passage towards her room. CHAPTER XLVIII. ONE TAKEN, THE OTHER LEFT. Ben se' crudel, se tu gia non ti duoli DANTE. Bear up thy dream, thou mighty and thou weak! THE HOME OF Love. A SLIGHT, stooping figure which had been seated with its back to the door, arose at their entrance, and, recognising Janet Rutherford, acknowledged her presence with the courtesy which a true gentleman never omits to pay to a woman, be she ever so humble in station or unattractive in person. It showed most gracefully beneath the coarse, ragged coat-the spoil of one of Mackay's prisoners, which had probably been a welcome prize to the once gay and elegant Earl of Glencarrig. A poor garment, too large for the present wearer, of faded red, faced and cuffed with blue, and looped with common yellow braid, the original hues almost undistinguishable from stains of every kind; his shoes were very heavy, yet nearly worn through; his fine linen positively in rags; nothing left of the whilome butterfly gallant but the carefully-combed jet-black locks, which were still as shining and welltended as in his palmiest days. This was the only point on which the delicate self-respect of high breeding had found room to exercise itself, and had not failed to do so. Janet returned the young nobleman's polite greeting with a low, but very stiff, obeisance; and, pursing up her mouth into an expression of obstinate reticence, betook herself to the business on hand with an imperturbable physiognomy. The wound which she had undertaken to examine was really a severe, and lacked little of being a very dangerous, one. It crossed the left shoulder a little outside the collar-bone, and penetrated some way into the breast, so as to give considerable reason to fear that the lungs were attacked. It was only partially healed; and the continual fever bred by pain and fatigue had evidently been a very bad visitor to a constitution impaired by undue exposure and deprivation of those comforts which the luxury of his former habits of life had rendered absolute necessaries. Under any other circumstances than those in which she imagined herself, the kind old woman would have been moved almost to tears by so afflicting a change in a youth born to the promise of ease and splendour; but Janet, being as uncompromising to her supposed enemies as devoted to her real friends, and regarding Lord Glencarrig as the sole primary cause of Alice's sorrows, considered herself in duty bound to repress any risings of compassion, and feel as harshly towards him as it is morally possible for a woman to do towards a man dependent upon her feminine tenderness and good offices. Glencarrig himself, perfectly aware that he was under |