"If we are past feuds, we are not past nature," said Anne, hastily. "Lewis, I saw Mrs. Catherine this morning. I could not rest till I had ascertained whether there was any hope, that Alice was not this man's child. Mrs. Catherine knew the reason of my inquiries and agitation, and exclaimed immediately that you must not see Alice again; before this time Alice knows all, and however you might hope to weaken the impression it will make upon her--and you could not succeed even in that, for Alice with all her gentleness would do nothing so abhorrent to natural feeling and universal opinion, were her heart to break--you know very well that it would be folly to attempt moving Mrs. Catherine.--She will not permit your engagement to continue, Lewis--you may be sure of that." Lewis burst forth into indignant exclamations: "Who dared to interfere between Alice and him? who would venture, for a crime done before her birth, to hinder their happiness?" "Lewis," said Anne, "this is quite useless. I do not want to interfere between Alice and you. I believe the great obstacle is removed, and that with but proper exertion on your own part, you may at once secure your purpose, and deliver our poor Norman; but, as for daring and venturing, would Mrs. Catherine hesitate, think you? would Alice Aytoun's brother be afraid? Lewis, you are mistaken: it may break poor Alice's girlish heart--far too young for such a weight--but it will not make her rebelious; it will lead her to no unwomanly extreme: she will submit!" Lewis was for a time passionate and loud, inveighing against them all for keeping him in ignorance, blaming Anne for telling Mrs. Catherine, and indulging in a thousand extravagances. Anne stood calmly beside him, and bore it all, too deeply bent on her own object to heed these effusions of passion. "And supposing it possible," exclaimed Lewis, sitting down again, after his passion had nearly exhausted itself--"supposing it possible to prove Norman innocent, what then? I don't see how my position is at all bettered. What will I have to offer Alice? Some poor thousand pounds, perhaps, that may be doled out to me as the younger brother's portion--no house, no certain means of living. I suppose you would have me get a school in Portoran, or apply for a situation in the Bank, or go into a writer's office in Edinburgh," continued Lewis, bitterly, "and think I was anticipating love in a cottage, when I spoke of Alice Aytoun!" Anne could have said much--could have begged and prayed him to believe that the landless Lewis Ross, who had saved his brother, would be a nobler man by far than the Laird of Merkland, who had left his nearest relative to languish out dishonored days in a strange country, uncared for and unsuccored: but she began to know better the material she had to work upon. "Norman has his own land, Lewis," she said. "Had he remained at home, and had all been well with him, you still would have inherited Merkland. I know that certainly."