'"Her dove she did deck, she drew o'er his neck A bell and a collar so gay; She tied to his wing a scroll with a string, Then kissed him and sent him away."' Suiting the action to the word, she kissed the pigeon and tossed it from her with a merry ringing laugh, for she had ever a light glad heart, and was full of pretty, yet haughty and winsome ways. Hew, in the vanity of his nature, could not see how hopeless it was for him to press his suit with a girl who never listened to him seriously, and who never tried, even in the least degree, to care for him; for there was something in Hew Caddish Montgomerie that made Mary totally indifferent to all he could urge, and so she felt neither regret for, nor gratitude to him: thus she could hear unmoved the avowal and proposal from his lips, which seldom fail to stir in one way or another the hearts of most women, and which, whoever utters them, are seldom or never forgotten. 'Let us be friends, Hew,' said she, in reply to another appeal; 'I do not love you--I cannot love you as you wish, and I dare not and would not marry where I did not love.' Hew eyed her still more gloomily and almost revengefully, while she played with the spray of a wild-rose tree, till a little cry escaped her, as a thorn entered her delicate hand. 'Do permit me, Mary,' he urged, and tenderly enough he extracted the thorn, and bowing over her hand, pressed it to his lips; but Mary almost angrily snatched it away, just as the sound of wheels was heard, and there bowled up the winding avenue a dog-cart, the driver and the occupant of which must have seen, and no doubt misunderstood, the whole situation. 'Our new guest with his gun-case and portmanteaus,' said Hew, with much annoyance. 'Who?' asked Mary, still more annoyed, as she thought of what Hew had done. 'Have you forgotten?' 'Oh! you mean Mr. Cecil Falconer.' 'Yes, that fellow from Dumbarton. Now don't, please, run off to the house, Mary; we shall meet him and his military appetite betimes, no doubt, when the gong sounds for dinner.' Mary had now an undefined sense of provocation, and in silence turned away towards the house, accompanied by Hew, who found his chance was gone for that day, and Mary never gave him another if it could be avoided. Thus ere long he began to fear that until Sir Piers' demise, and the baronetcy and broad acres of Eaglescraig became his by succession, he might have to face the Indian C.S. again; and seek how to meet his debts by trying--as he had often done--his fortune at 'the board of green cloth.' CHAPTER III. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. The sense of having borne a part in a scene--an event which is dreaded by well-bred folks--prevented Mary from making her appearance till dinner-time, when, after achieving a most effective toilette, she entered the lighted drawing-room.