William. One of you, Hugh or Flora, you'll just step along to Mr. Carmichael, and say I want the wagonette sent here instanter, and the best pair o' horses in the stable. And if the man has a new suit o' livery, then on wi't at once! Come away, Alison; it's 'hey the bonny, ho the bonny, hey the bonny breast-knots!' and if ye've got no special finery for the wedding, see if I dinna make that up to ye before long-my word for it."

And then again, when the little silver-haired, fresh-complexioned, bright-eyed woman had got her niece into her own room, she placed her at arm's-length before her and regarded her.

"They've no frightened ye, Ailie, my dear?"

"No, aunt, not in the least," Alison answered, quite simply. "There's self-possession for ye! there's coolness!—there's my bit lady, that would face a regiment of cavalry when her mind's. made up!" Aunt Gilchrist said, quite proudly. "That brother o' mine-don't you heed him, Alison! They professional folk are just that timid about what the neighbors may say-they're a' living in glass houses-and they darena call their soul their own. But I thought he might frighten you."

"I was

"Well, aunt, this is how it is," Alison made answer. very much troubled and very anxious at first, when I had to consider this-this proposal; but since I have given my promise to Ludovick, it is of no consequence what any one may say—that is all."

"Since you've given your promise to Ludovick!-and when was that, I wonder?"

"This morning."

"This morning?"

"He was in the garden, aunt: I went down and saw him." "They young folk! they young folk!" exclaimed Aunt Gilchrist, shaking her head mournfully; but she was not deeply displeased, and forthwith she went to her chest of drawers. “Well, Alison, I'll show ye the gown I'm going to wear; and if ye dinna say it's fit for a wedding, I'll call ye an ungrateful hussy."

Indeed, one might have thought it was Aunt Gilchrist herself who was about to be married, from the importance she assumed on this momentous morning. Of course there was a vast amount of hurrying, for the time was short; and yet in the midst of it all Aunt Gilchrist found an opportunity of calming the consciences of the elder Munroes, who were not a little alarmed by what was

going on. She pointed out to them that they need not take any part whatsoever in this project, or be in any way responsible for it. What would happen, would happen after Alison had left their house. Her luggage was quite ready; let the lad John convey it down to the quay. Alison would say good-by to the Doctor and Mrs. Munro at their own door; and if she chose to go through a marriage ceremony with anybody-no matter whom-between that leave-taking and her departure by the steamer, why, that was her own affair, and they need not be supposed to know.

When Ludovick Macdonell came along, a few minutes thereafter, Flora's quick eye perceived that he did not wear his usual happy and careless audacity of manner; he seemed anxious about Alison somehow; he kept looking at her from time to timethough, to be sure, she appeared perfectly calm and self-possessed. He had no opportunity of speaking to her alone until they were going down through the garden to the wagonette, and even then it was only a word.

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Alison," he said, in a low voice, "am I asking too much?" "No, Ludovick," she answered, simply, and with frank eyes upturned to his.

And indeed there was nothing very exacting or imposing or terrifying about this brief ceremony. When they drove along to the solicitor's office, that functionary drew out a declaration of marriage from particulars he had already received from Captain Ludovick. The two contracting parties signed it-Alison's hand just trembling a little; then two witnesses had to sign, of whom Aunt Gilchrist boldly claimed to be the first. The bridegroom looked doubtfully at Hugh.

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'Perhaps you would rather have nothing to do with it, Hugh?" said he.

"Oh, I'm going to stand by you, Ludovick," the younger man answered, promptly, and he took the pen from Aunt Gilchrist and affixed his name.

The next part of the ceremony was equally brief and simple. Armed with this important document they drove along to the big brown-stone building in which the sheriff's court is held; there they sought out the sheriff - substitute in his chambers. That worthy gentleman read over the declaration, signed it, and handed it back to Captain Ludovick, whom, by-the-way, he chanced to know slightly; and the next minute, when they were out in the

open air again, Alison Blair was no longer Alison Blair, but Alison Macdonell, whatever the change might bring to her in the coming years.

"And is it really all over, Ludovick?" Flora cried, clinging on to Alison's arm, and looking a little bit awe-stricken as well as amused; for there was something uncanny about this swift, simple, informal transaction that had in a few minutes so completely transformed the lives of two human beings.

"Well," said the bridegroom, doubtfully, as he pulled out his watch, "there might be time to go to the registrar and get a copy of the entry, if Alison would like to take it with her."

"Ludovick," said Hugh, who was a long-sighted lad, "the steamer has left Corpach."

“Then we'll run no risks," Macdonell said, forthwith. "I'll go to the registrar when I come back in the afternoon—there is no hurry; and we can walk down to the quay now, unless Mrs. Gilchrist would rather drive."

"Oh, I'll go with ye. Periphery will let me go that short way," Aunt Gilchrist responded. "But the wagonette must wait for me. I'm not going home until I see my bit lady fairly started for the South."

And now, as the red-funnelled steamer slows in and stops, picks up its passengers and cargo, and sets forth on its voyage again— and when the last farewells have been waved to the proud little dame still standing at the end of the quay-behold! this is no sad-eyed Princess Deirdri sailing away southward, surrounded by weeping companions. The steeled composure of the morning is no longer necessary; the ordeal is over; now she is roseate and happy and glad, as becomes a bride; and her cousins are as kind to her as they can be, though still they must tease her, and pay mock homage to her new estate. As for Captain Ludovick, he holds somewhat aloof; he is her husband, but does not press any claim on her attention; he allows the cousins to monopolize her; he appears indifferent has he not the part of a husband to play? And is not the day a fair day and fit for a bride? The farther and farther south they go the skies get brighter and brighter, until here, close at hand, along the Appin shore, the sun is shining brilliantly on the sandy bays, on the rocks and crags half covered with ivy, and on the patches of dark-green fir and light-green ash; while away to the west, beyond the glassy plain of the sea, the

azure.

far hills of Morven and Kingairloch have become of a faint rosegray, with every scaur and corrie traced in shadows of purest The throb of the paddle-wheels no longer bids her say a last farewell to Lochaber; kind friends are close and near to her; her lover-her husband is but a yard or two away, an outstanding guard, as it were; and if there were no marriage-bells rung for her in Fort William, they are ringing now in her heart. Ludovick comes forward.

"I say, Flora," he begins, "don't you think it is rather shabby of me to let Alison go back alone? Don't you think I should go with her, to see her properly established?"

Alison looks up with a smile.

"Well, Ludovick," she says, "I don't know what may happen to me; perhaps something not very pleasant; but I know if you were to go with me, it would be twenty times worse. You talk about your discretion: why, you haven't got any at all! No, you must come back in this steamer with Hugh and Flora; I don't want any one to see you with me in the railway-train or anywhere else; that would only make matters worse; and the truth is, Ludovick, perhaps-perhaps it may be better for me not to tell them what has happened-not for a little while, anyway, until I see a good chance."

"Then," said he, with an air of surprise," do you want me to address my letters to Miss Alison Blair?-is that what I'm to call you?" She looked down.

"Oh yes, why not?" she said.

"Oh, very well," he made answer, cheerfully enough; "it is of little consequence only that would hardly be my way—I would tell them straight off, and let them make what they can of it. But just as you like. You see, Flora, I'm going to be a very obedient husband-at first. We'll have to lead her into slavery by gentle degrees. We'll have the rack and the thumb-screw produced later on."

None the less was it somewhat hard that the parting between husband and wife should take place in view of the on-lookers in Oban railway-station. The train was pretty full; the best he could do for her was to get her a seat in a compartment in which an elderly lady and her three fair, large, and bright-haired daughters were already installed; therefore, what he had to say to her had to be spoken in parables.

"Remember, Alison"

these were his last words to her as

the train was beginning to move out of the station-" remember, you will have to be at Oyre long before the honeysuckle has had time to grow up to the window."

Her eyes were fixed on his she knew what he meant.

"I am not so sure about that, Ludovick," she answered; but she smiled bravely as long as he was in sight, and even kissed her hand to him again and again, despite the presence of these strangers, and when at last the train tore her away from him, and from the cousins who had been so kind to her, the tears that dimmed her eyes were not such tears of wretchedness after all.

CHAPTER XIX.

A SUMMONS.

ONE afternoon Flora was in the garden, busily engaged in snipping dead roses off the rose-bushes, when her brother Hugh came up from the shore. He had his yellow oil-skins over his arm, for it had been wet in the morning, though now the sun was hot on the flower-beds and the little gravelled paths.

"Look here," said he, gloomily," we must get rid of that fellow Johnny. He's growing worse and worse. He has been so encouraged, and so often forgiven, that he is now perfectly reckless, and the end of it will be his finding himself in Inverness jail. It's no use. He doesn't believe you when you threaten him."

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'Why, what has he been doing now?" said Flora, looking up. "There it is!" her brother exclaimed, in disgust. "At once you are ready to laugh! That is the way you encourage him— and do you think he doesn't understand? Well, I don't see the fun of it myself. I don't want to be had up on a charge of manslaughter."

"What is it now?" she repeated.

"Oh, nothing!" he said, "only a little playful trick! When I went out in the lug-sail boat I put him up at the bow to keep a lookout-I thought it would just suit his laziness. Well, nothing happened till we were near to Corpach, when all of a sudden I heard a frightful yell right in front of me, and when I jammed down the helm I found myself just shaving the edge of a canoe