with the black pools rippling in the wind, and in the silence of the rapid whistle of the silken line through the air, with now and then the “blob” of a big salmon rising to a fly further down the pool! Where was there any rest like the rest of the mid-day luncheon, when Duncan had put the big fish, wrapped in rushes, under the shadow of the nearest rock, when you sat down on the warm heather and lit your pipe, and began to inquire where you had been bitten on hands and neck by the ferocious “clegs” while you are too busy in playing a fifteen-pounder to care? Then, perhaps, as you were sitting there in the warm sunlight, with all the fresh scents of moorland around, you would hear a light footstep on the soft moss; and, turning around, here was Sheila herself, with a bright look in her pretty eyes, and a half blush on her cheek, and a friendly inquiry as to the way the fish had been behaving. Then the beautiful, strange, cool evenings on the shores of Loch Roag, with the wild, clear light still shining in the Northern heavens, and the sound of the waves getting to be lonely and distant; or, still later, out in Sheila’s boat, with the great yellow moon rising up over Suainabhal and Mealasabhal into a lambent vault of violet sky; a pathway of quivering gold lying across the Loch; a mild radiance glittering here and there on the spars of the small vessel, and out there the great Atlantic lying still and distant as in a dream. As he sat in this little room and thought of all these things, he grew to think he had not acted quite fairly to Sheila. She was so fond of that beautiful island life, and she had not even visited the Lewis since her marriage. She should go now. He would abandon the trip to the Tyrol, and as soon as arrangements could be made they would together start for the North, and some day find themselves going up the steep shore to Sheila’s home, with the old King of Borva standing in the porch of the house, and endeavoring to conceal his nervousness by swearing at Duncan’s method of carrying the luggage. Had not Sheila’s stratagem succeeded? That pretty trick of hers in decorating the room so as to resemble the house at Borvapost had done all that she could have desired. But where was she? Lavender rose hastily and looked at his watch. Then he rang the bell, and a servant appeared. “Did not Mrs. Lavender say when she would return?” he asked. “No, sir.” “You don’t know where she went?” “No, sir. The young lady’s luggage was put in the cab, and they drove away without leaving any message.”