The gentleman was Shafto, and his companion was Finella Melfort, Cosmo's orphan daughter (an heiress through her mother), who had returned a month before from a protracted visit in Tyburnia. They seemed to be on excellent terms with each other, and doubtless the natural gaiety of the girl's disposition, her vivacity of manner, and their supposed mutual relationship, had opened the way to speedy familiarity. She was a dark-haired and dark-eyed, but very white-skinned little beauty, with a perfect _mignonne_ face, a petite but round and compact figure, gracefully formed, and very coquettish and _spirituelle_ in all her ways. She had received her peculiar Christian name at the special request of her grandfather, that silly peer being desirous that her name might go down in the peerage in connection with that of the famous Finella of Fettercairn. 'A winsome pair they would make,' was the smiling remark of Mr. Kenneth Kippilaw, who was of the party (with three romping daughters from Edinburgh), to Lord Fettercairn, who smirked a grim assent, as if it was a matter of indifference to him, which it was not, as his legal adviser very well knew; and my Lady Drumshoddy, who heard the remark, bestowed upon him a bright and approving smile in return for a knowing glance through the glasses of his gold _pince-nez_. In Craigengowan the adventurous Shafto Gyle had found his veritable Capua--he was literally 'in clover.' Yet he never heard himself addressed by his assumed name without experiencing a strange sinking and fluttering of the heart. The once-despised Lennard Melfort's sword, his commission, and his hard-won medals earned in Central India and the Terai of Nepaul were now looked upon as precious relics in his mother's luxurious boudoir at Craigengowan, and reclaimed from the lumber-attic, his portrait, taken in early life, was again hung in a place of honour in the dining-hall. 'What a fool my old uncle was to lose his claim on such a place as this, and all for the face of a girl!' was the exclamation of Shafto to himself when first he came to Craigengowan, and then he looked fearfully around him lest the word _uncle_ might have been overheard by some one; and he thought--'If rascally the trick I have played my simple and love-stricken cousin--and rascally it was and is--surely it was worth while to be the heir of this place, Craigengowan. To reckon as mine in future all this grand panorama of heath-clad hills, of green and golden fields, of purple muirland, and stately woods of oak and pine where the deer rove in herds; as mine the trout-streams that flow towards the Bervie; the cascades that roar down the cliffs; the beautiful old house, with its stables, kennels, and terrace; its cellars, pictures, plate, and jewellery, old china and vases of marble and jasper, china and Japanese work; and I possess all that rank and wealth can give!' and so thought this avaricious rascal, with a capacity for evil actions far beyond his years.