'A better dog never entered a field! Eleven years has he followed me, and now he is thirteen years auld, and can yet find game wi' the youngest and the best whelp we hae; and to think that he should get sic a clowre from a clod like that! But dogs bark as they are bred--so does Hawkey Sharpe! He's like the witches o' Auchencraw; he'll get mair for your ill than your gude.' A proverb that means, favours are often granted an individual through fear of his malevolence. Roland felt all the words implied, and colouring, said, pale with anger: 'He shall pay up this score and others, I hope, ere long, Gavin.' And Mrs. Lindsay placed her hand upon her heart, on hearing of the episode, and was secretly thankful that the only one who suffered from Hawkey's jealous vengeance was poor Ponto, the pointer. CHAPTER XIX. HESTER RECEIVES A PROPOSAL. Annot was certainly curious to know what was passing between the two whom she had seen wandering into the cooler atmosphere of the conservatory; but she could not at the same time relinquish the society of Roland, and to suggest that they should adjourn thither might only mar the end she wished--without any real affection for Hester--to come to pass, as she had not been without her own suspicions retrospectively. But, sore though it was, we fear that the heart of Hester Maule was not to be caught on the rebound. And in dread and dislike of Annot's observation, her jests and comments, she had--so far as she could--lately avoided being, if possible, for a moment alone with Malcolm Skene, or giving him an opportunity of addressing her, and he had felt this keenly. In the long drawing-room the dancing was still gaily in progress, and the soft strains of Strauss went floating along the leafy and gorgeous aisles of the conservatory, where Skene and Hester had--so far as she was concerned--unconsciously wandered. She seated herself, wearily and flushed with dancing, while he hung over her, with his elbow resting on a shelf of flowers, while looking pensively and tenderly down on her--on the heaving of her rounded bosom, her long dark lashes, and the clear white parting of the rich brown hair on her shapely head, longing with all his soul to place his arms round her, and draw that beloved head caressingly on his breast; and yet the words he said at first were somewhat commonplace after all. But Hester, while slowly fanning herself to hide the tremulousness of her hands, knew and felt intuitively that a scene between them was on the tapis; and, deeming it inevitable at some time or other, she thought the sooner it was over the better; and in the then weariness of her heart, she felt a little reckless; but his introductory remarks surprised her by their bluntness. 'My life now seems but one manoeuvre, Miss Maule--to be alone with you for a moment or two.' Hester made some inaudible reply; so he resumed: 'I have heard it said by some--by whom matters not--that you are engaged, Miss Maule?'