Part 3 (1/2)

It was not long before Daniel rose to take his departure. ”Oh, by the way,” he said, with a broad smile, ”I have one little favor to ask you....”

”Certainly, certainly,” responded Lord Blair warmly. ”Anything I can do, I'm sure-anything. You have put me under a great obligation by coming so promptly to my aid in this matter.”

”Well, will you be so good as to walk as far as your front gate with me?

There's something I want to show you.”

Lord Blair, somewhat mystified, accompanied him on to the veranda; and here they chanced upon Lady Muriel again taking the air with Rupert Helsingham who was once more her partner. The couple were strolling towards them as they came out of the house.

Daniel made for the steps. ”What I want you to see is over here,” he said, pointing to the gateway.

”One moment,” Lord Blair interjected, taking hold of his arm. ”I want to introduce you to my daughter.”

He called Muriel to him, who replied somewhat coldly that she had already met Mr. Lane.

”Really?” exclaimed his Lords.h.i.+p. ”Splendid, capital!”

”Yes,” said Daniel, taking his pipe out of his mouth, ”when she was quite a kid; but I'm blest if I know where it was.”

He was standing again almost with his back to Muriel, his pipe between his teeth, and once more a sense of annoyance entered her mind. She would have liked to pinch him, but for all she knew he might turn round and fling her into the middle of the drive. She racked her brains for something to say, something which would show him that she was not to be ignored in this fas.h.i.+on.

”Ah,” she exclaimed suddenly, ”now I remember. It was in the Highlands that we met. You came over to tea with us: I was staying with my cousin the d.u.c.h.ess of Strathness.”

Daniel scratched his head. ”I'm so bad at names,” he said. ”What's she like?”

Lord Blair uttered a sudden guffaw, but Muriel did not treat the matter so lightly. A man with gentlemanly instincts, she thought to herself, would at any rate _pretend_ he remembered.

”Oh, why bother to think it out?” she answered, her foot ominously tapping the floor. ”It's of no consequence.”

”None,” Daniel replied, looking at her with his steady laughing eyes.

”You're still you, and I'm still I.... But I did like your pigtails.”

Muriel turned to her partner, who stood anxiously fiddling with his eyegla.s.s. ”Come along,” she said; ”let's go back. The music's begun again.”

She nodded with decided coolness to Daniel, and turned away. He gazed after her in silence for a moment; then he put his hand on her father's arm, and gently propelled him towards the gates.

As they walked down the drive in the moonlight, the sentry peered at them through the iron bars, and, recognizing Lord Blair, suddenly presented arms, becoming thereat a very pa.s.sable imitation of a waxwork figure.

Lord Blair put his arm in Daniel's. ”What is it you wanted to show me?”

he asked, as they pa.s.sed through the gate and stood upon the pavement outside.

”A good soldier,” said Daniel, indicating the sentry, whose face a.s.sumed an expression of mingled anxiety and astonishment. ”I wanted to call your attention to this lad. Do you think you could put in a word for him to his colonel? I was very much struck this evening with the way in which he dealt with a ruffianly tramp who apparently wanted to get into the grounds. He showed great self-restraint combined with determination and devotion to duty.” There was not the trace of a smile upon his face.

Lord Blair turned to the rigid Scotchman, whose mouth had fallen open.

”What's your name, my man?” he asked.

”John Macdonald, me Lord,” he answered unsteadily.