The season was the early days of April; but in the Mearns they are usually more like last days of March, when the Bervie, the Finella River, and their tributaries were hurrying towards the sea in haste, as if they had no time to dally with the pebbles and boulders that impeded them; when the early-yeaned lambs begin to gambol and play, and the cloud and sunshine seem to chase each other over the tender grass; and when violets, as Shakspeare has it, 'sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,' give their fragrance to the passing breeze. As yet Dulcie knew nothing of what had exactly befallen Florian, like many others who had deep and thrilling interest in the lists of the sergeants, rank and file. Like Finella, Shafto knew that Hammersley's name had not appeared in the list of casualties, and he remembered him--jealousy apart--with a bitter hatred; for latterly the former, even before the affair of the cards, had been very cold, and many a time, notwithstanding Shafto's position in the house, used to honour him with only a calm and supercilious stare. Now it has been said truly that there are few things more irritating to one's vanity than to be calmly ignored. 'Argument, disagreement, even insolence, are each in their way easier to bear than that species of lofty indifference intended to convey a sensation of inferiority and of belonging to a lower class of beings altogether. It gives the feeling of there being something _wrong_ about you without your exactly knowing _what_.' But Shafto felt the falsehood of his position whenever he was with supposed equals and failed to assume perfect confidence or proper dignity.