A Daughter of Raasay

hisper to Lord Balmerino. "Can Mon

'Tis Volney's doing. He has angled for Montagu a se'nnight

ged his

nothing but the rattle of that little box which makes the most seductive music ever sung by siren. My Lord Balmerino might stand

g eyes looked acro

we say doubles? You'll n

main," I cried,

oaks that had weathered the storms of three

nn. The jade jilts us all at times," drawled V

akes not often, and I have wondered by what charmed

Robert Volney rode on the crest of fortune's wave, and there were not lacking those who whispered that his invariable luck was due to someth

he had become an intimate companion of the Prince of Wales. The man had a wide observation of life; indeed, he was an interested and whimsical observer rather than an actor, and a scoffer always. A libertine from the head to the heel of him, yet gossip marked him as the future husband of the

living man, but he was no hothead to be drawn from his purpose. If Lord Balmerino wanted to measure swords with him he woul

uck and out of luck to bear a smiling front

as well known as an open malconten

geon for the plucking-the lad you hav

, my Lord,

afe to pluck," continued Balmeri

dee

find out. An eaglet is not wi

had been but a boy instead of full three months past my legal majority. Be

ay, Volney. You keep

t across the table from me. "Isn't there a proverb, Mr. Montagu, about a-a careless gentleman an

of manner. Out came the feathers with a sure hand, the while they exchanged choice bon mots and racy scandal. Hazard was the game we played and I, Kenneth Montagu, was cast for the r?le of the pigeon. Against these

atest?"[1] inquired Lord

il take it!" cried

r story," drawled the fou

ox was hanged for cutting purses, and up comes our Fox to quiz George. Says he, knowing Selwyn's penchant for horrors, 'George, were you at t

n. Selwyn is as regular as Jack Ketch himse

love of Helen I crab. Saw ever

h turned off that fellow Dr. Dodd too. There was a shower, and the prison chaplain held an umbrella over Dodd's

rking back to Selwyn. "When George has a tooth pulled he drops h

tion of the jest as he tottered from the room

after year," said O'Sullivan bluntly, before the door had even c

t old Pam has been dead for several years, but he doesn't

pham Beauclerc that he had fallen asleep over his throw. Selwyn and Lord March lounged into the

O'Sully rooking to-night, Volney? Oh, I se

. Sir James had been in the high graces of Frederick Prince of Wales until the younger and more polished Volney had ousted him. On the part of the coarse and burly Craven, there was

irts, and Walpole vowed that Lady Coventry's new

nge for a guinea," suggested Selwyn gloomily, his

nt of unrest and dissatisfaction. It was said that there were those who boasted quietly among themselves over their wine that the sun would yet rise some day on a Stuart England, that there were desperate men still willing to risk their lives in blind loyalty

Row itself. Once, between games, I strolled uneasily down the room, and passing the long looking glass scarce recognized the haggard face that looked out at me. Still I

He clapped a hand on my shoulder

t thou' to-night. Let the old famil

word. I knew the young soldier slightly and liked him with a great respect, though I could not know that this grave brilliant-eyed young man was lat

viser to young men of fashion who incline to enjoy life. Are you

ve done. To point my case I cite mysel

the future. A vastly interesting game, this of politics. You stake you

n frowning marble, but Volney leaned back carelessl

withering 'twixt

ainst you to-night," urged Balmerino,

othing, but his fa

to school and be birc

te to show him I was as good a man as he. My grim-faced gu

lad will have to gang his ain gate," I h

two hours later I wrote out notes for a total so large that I

a cursed run of the ivories to-night, Kenn! When are you for your revenge? Shall we say to-m

on my shoulders. I knew now what I had done. Fool that I was, I had mortgaged not only my own heritage but also the lives of my young brother Charles and my sister Cloe. Our father had died of apoplexy without a will, and a large part of his personal pro

ht fell on my shoulder from behind. I turned with a start,

ay, Kenneth

matter? A broken gambler-a ruined

been alone, but I could scarce tell him so. He had been a frie

not lost. I have a word to

"You would lock the stable

ou in the way of getting anoth

looked at him twic

s things look now I must either pistol myself or take

things than to lo

do not know them," I answered wit

all one has lost and more," he f

eak of," I cried impat

he stopped me and read my face line by line. I dare swear he found there a recklessness to match his own and pe

ust like you when we went out together in the '15 for

and eyes told of a mind reminiscent of the past and perhaps dreamful o

country then, but now you are as poor in this world's gear as Arthur Elphinstone himself. When one has

on in my mind that I stood in a m

t. I offer you another cut at Fortune

im. What did he mean? Volney's words came to my mind. I began to piece together rumours I had heard but never credited. I knew that even now men d

y. "'Tis more like that I would play the knave. You spea

t, Kenn. I have known you more gleg at the uptake, but if you

ghbourhood, for my Lord was as poor as a church mouse despite his title.

I promise

ad led me to offer myself a dupe to these hawks of the gaming table. I raged in a stress of heady passion against that fair false friend Sir Rob

o theireadh e!" (The He

ellow apparently about my own age, of extraordinary agility and no mean skill with the sword. He was giving a good account of himself against the four assailants who hemmed him against the wall, his point flashing here and there with swift irregularity to daunt their valiancy. At the moment when I appeared to create a diversion one of the four

shoulder, and at the same time the young swordsman fleshed another of them. The man with the knife scrambled to his feet, a ludicrous picture

andsome: the chin was over-square and a white scar zigzagged across his cheek, but I liked the look of him none the less for that. His frank manly countenance wore the self-reliance of one who has lived among the hills and slept among the heather under countless stars. For dress he wore the English costume with the extra splash of colour that betokened th

ugh, but he happened to be the first of the name I had ever heard crying a Highland slogan in the streets of London, and I looked at him wi

ee inches and told me no, that he would think shame of himself if he could not keep his head with his hands from a streetf

I told him, laughin

the good friend you've been to me this

ds I'll just look up Mr. James Brown,"

he was a Mac-something or other. To a Gaelic gentleman like him

, and where our ways parted near A

plore down the street. I was just weanying for a lad handy with his blade, and

friendliness and flatteries were balm to a sick heart

bligations to the letters of Horace Walpole who was himsel