Aware of the trick it could be proved he had, in a spirit of malevolence rather than to serve his master, played Bevil Goring in Antwerp, and his confession thereof in a moment of agony, weakness, and terror, when believing himself to be dying in the Belgian hospital, the rascal Gaskins was very loth to venture within twenty miles of Aldershot camp; but, while believing certainly that the wronged officer of the Rifles would never be at Cadbury Court, he was less sure that he might not fall upon him in the vicinity of Chilcote; thus he was greatly relieved when, in reply to some casual remarks, he elicited from Archie that Captain Goring was in London. So Gaskins felt his shoulders safe as yet. 'Our fare is no gude enough nae doubt for a gentleman like you, Mr. Gaskins,' said Archie, as he ushered the dandified groom (whose surtout was girt by a waist-belt and garnished with a rosebud button-hole) into the kitchen, his whole face wearing a contemptuous smirk the while; 'but we can aye gi'e a bane o' cauld beef to pyke, wi' a farl o' breid and a cogie o' gude yill, and they are better, ye ken, than sowans, ill-soured, ill-sauted, and sodden.' 'What the dooce is he saying, Mrs. Prune?' asked Mr. Gaskins, in sore perplexity, as he carefully wiped his cockaded hat with a white handkerchief. 'Ye kenna what I am saying?' asked Archie, with contemptuous surprise. 'No, Mr. Hackindore, you must excuse me really.' 'Out of the world and into Kippen?' said Archie, with a toss of his head. 'And how is Sir Ranald, Mrs. Prune?' asked Gaskins. 'The laird is a wee thing dwining again,' said Archie, ere she could reply. 'They say aye ailin' ne'er fills the kirk-yard; but I'm fearsome at times this is the last blaze o' the candle in the socket,' he added, with a little break in his voice. On the day of this visit Sir Ranald was not visible at all, and Lord Cadbury had Alison all to himself in the little drawing-room, where he was fast resuming his old airs of property and protection, and almost venturing to make what he deemed love in dull and emotionless tones; and Alison, had she not been grieved by her father's condition, and worried by the whole situation, might have laughed at Cadbury's Don Juanesque posing as too absurd. 'I shall never be able to describe to you,' said he, for the tenth time, 'my profound alarm and grief when I lost you so mysteriously at Antwerp.' 'In a place to which I should never have gone.' 'Not even with me?' he asked, softly. 'Not even with you; but I was weary, triste--glad to do anything to forget my own thoughts; but as for your friend Captain Smith----'