'I am thinking, grandmamma,' said Finella wearily. 'You seem to be for ever thinking, child; and I wonder what it can all be about.' 'I don't believe, grandmamma, it would interest you,' said Finella, a little defiantly. 'There you are wrong, Finella; what interests you, must of necessity interest me,' said Lady Fettercairn, haughtily yet languidly, as she fanned herself. 'Not always.' 'Is it something new, then? I suspect your thoughts,' she continued with some asperity. 'Finella, listen to me again. You and Shafto are the only two left of the Melfort family; we wish the two branches united, for their future good--the good of the name and the title; and if Shafto goes into Parliament, I do not see why he should not perhaps become Viscount or Earl of Fettercairn.' 'The old story! I have no ambition, grandmamma,' shrugging her shoulders, 'and certainly none to be the wife of Shafto, even were he made a duke. So please to let me alone,' she added desperately, 'or I may tell you that of--of--Shafto you may not like to hear.' And in sooth now, Lady Fettercairn, like her lord, had heard so much evil of Shafto lately that she abruptly dropped the subject for the time. And now Shafto began once more to persecute poor Dulcie--a persecution which might have a perilous effect upon her future. CHAPTER XV. PERSECUTION. Shafto felt, with no small satisfaction, that he could, to a certain extent, control the actions of both these girls. Finella could not reveal the secret of her quarrel with him without admitting the terms on which she had been with Hammersley; and Dulcie, he thought, dared not resent his conduct, lest--through his influence with Lady Fettercairn--she might be cast into the world, without even a certificate that would enable her to procure another situation of any kind. Thus, to a certain extent, he revelled in security so far as both were concerned. And deeming now that all must be at an end between Finella and Hammersley, he thought to pique the former perhaps by attentions to Dulcie--attentions by which he might ultimately gain some little favours for himself. In both instances vain thoughts! He was aware that he had an ample field of old and mutual interest or associations to go back upon with Dulcie; thus he thought if he could entangle her into an apparent flirtation for the purpose of mortifying Finella, and catching her heart on the rebound, sore as it must be with the seeming indifference of Hammersley, he would gain his end; and this mutual intimacy eventually annoyed and surprised Lady Fettercairn, and was likely to prove fatal to the interests and position of Dulcie, whom he felt he must either win for himself in some fashion, and, if not, in revenge have her expelled from Craigengowan.