'Now, girls, don't be foolish,' said Roland, in reply to the entreaties of Maude and Hester--the former especially--to be permitted to visit Jack, who was now abed, and in the hands of an accredited nurse. 'Why--may not I see him?' pled Maude. 'Not yet, certainly,' replied Roland, caressing her sunny brown hair, and patting her cheek, from which the faint rose tint was fled. 'I must see him, Roland, that I may know he is not--not--dead. 'Dead, you dear little goose! Such fellows as Jack Elliot take a long time in dying. You should have seen him as I did (though it is well, however, you did not), when doubled up by a grape-shot at Tel-el-Kebir. He'll be all right in a day or two, and meanwhile-- 'What, Roland?' asked the trembling girl. 'I go to Edinburgh, to get at the real state of our affairs, what or however they may be; I feel inclined to shoot that fellow Sharpe like a dog if he crosses my path again at Earlshaugh!' 'Roland, Roland, you surely know all?' said his sister with intense sadness. 'No, I do not know all,' said he, drawing her head on his breast and caressing her; and feeling keenly that their father's roof was degraded by the presence of this fellow, after attempting such a crime--for a crime Roland felt and knew it to be; albeit that the perpetrator was the brother of their father's widow, and should, but for cogent reasons, be handed over to the mercies of the Procurator-Fiscal for the county. By the very outrage he had committed, Sharpe had excited all the tenderness and commiseration for Elliot of which Maude's nature was capable, and for himself all the loathing and detestation which her usually gentle heart could feel. Thus he had lost much and won nothing; and notwithstanding his sister's position, influence, and interest at Earlshaugh, he felt himself very much _de trop_; and, unable to face the heavy fire of obloquy and blame that met him on every hand, he feigned the excuse--if such were wanting--of having to attend the Ayr races, which came off about that time, and departed ostensibly for the great western meeting on that famous course which lies southward of the ancient town of Ayr. His farewell words to his sister were: 'I'll be even with Roland Lindsay yet--yes, more than even, as you shall see, Deb!' Whether he really went there was apocryphal, as he was seen ere long hovering about the vicinity of Earlshaugh, if not in the house itself. And Hawkey Sharpe never did anything without a prime or ulterior object in view. The event we have narrated marred the partridge shooting at Earlshaugh for a time; and as lately quite a crop of dances and drums, garden and music parties had sprung up in the vicinity, and attendance at these was marred too, Annot Drummond felt more exasperation than commiseration at the cause thereof. CHAPTER XXV. THE WILL.