'Welcome to Earlshaugh--you are no stranger here, Hester!' said Roland, as he kissed the latter when he assisted her to alight from the carriage at the _porte-cochère_--the lightest and fleetest thing possible in the way of a salute--one without warmth or lingering force; but then Annot--whom he did not kiss at all 'before folk'--had her hazel-green eyes upon them. For Annot he had the most choice little bouquet that old Willie Wardlaw, the gardener, could prepare; but there was none for Hester, an omission which the latter scarcely noticed. 'And this is your home!' exclaimed Annot, burying her little nose among the many lilies of the valley, pink rosebuds, and fragrant stephanotis. 'It is the home of my forefathers,' replied Roland almost evasively, as he gave her his arm. 'What a romantic reply--savours quite of a three-volume novel!' exclaimed Annot, unaware of what the answer too literally implied, and what was actually passing in Roland's mind; but Hester felt for him, and saw the painful blush that crossed his nut-brown cheek. The family legal agent had not yet returned to Edinburgh, so Roland had not been able to see or take counsel with him as to what transpired when he was lurking in the desert after Kashgate. But Annot was come, and for the time he was content to live at Earlshaugh in that species of Fool's Paradise--'to few unknown,' as Milton has it. As yet nothing more had been heard of the meadowing of the park or cutting down the King's Wood; and save that Mr. Hawkey Sharpe from time to time crossed his path, and even--to Maude's intense annoyance, and that of Roland from other causes--joined his sister at the family meals, Roland had no other specific grievance; but he felt as if upon a volcano. As Annot left the carriage, she was greeted warmly and kindly by Maude, who was glad to return attentions received in London, and who as yet knew nothing of how the young lady was situated with regard to Roland, who now looked round for Mrs. Lindsay as the lady of the house. But the latter, under the _régime_ of her predecessor, his mother, 'was too accurately acquainted with the weights and measures of society for such a movement as that;' and thus received her two guests--or Maude's rather--in the Red Drawing-room, accurately attired in rich black moire, with lace lappets and jet ornaments; and was, of course, 'delighted' to see both, while according to each, not her hand, but a finger thereof; and Hester, who knew her well of old, read again in her pale face that mixture of hardness and cunning with which the slight smile on her thin lips--a smile that never reached her sharp gray eyes--well accorded. Her eyes were handsome, and had been pleasing in their expression once; but now her somewhat false position in Earlshaugh and her secret ailment had imparted to them a defiant, restless, and peculiar one.