Snarley now suddenly showed his teeth, as if to announce the approach of the latter through the outer drawing-room, where it would almost seem that he had been again an unseen listener, as at Eaglescraig. '_Petit chien!_' exclaimed Mary, as the Huguenot pose was suddenly relinquished, and she snatched up her dog to kiss it; '_petit chien_--dear wee doggie, don't be jealous of--oh, it's _you_, Hew--how tiresome!' she added under her breath, as that personage lounged upon the scene, and drily gave his cold, fishy hand to Falconer. 'Hew again!' thought Mary with a shiver of repugnance; and again, as in the instance of the grotto, she marvelled, with intense annoyance, how much he had overseen and overheard, and how long he had been _en perdue_! Nearly ignoring the presence of Falconer, who assumed his hat and gloves, he bowed coldly and said curtly: 'I am about to have a canter down Granton way: will you join me, Mary?' 'I would rather be excused.' 'Why?' 'It is anything but a pretty road--all stone walls and no trees.' Hew scowled. The answer showed plainly that his company would not compensate for the dulness of the road--'and before that fellow Falconer, too!' 'Annabelle will go, perhaps.' 'She is out with the old soldier, Mrs. Garth.' 'Hew?' she exclaimed, while with curiously-mingled emotions of delight and annoyance, Falconer, deeming that the time had come to depart, bowed himself out as Hew rang the bell. 'Ha!' thought the latter, 'she will not ride with me, and she has not driven out with them, so she expected this fellow! They have some secret understanding unknown to Sir Piers, most certainly. But they have not yet come to the third volume of their little romance!' Mary read his thoughts and suspicions in his face, and her heart swelled with anger. 'We must stop this nonsense, Hew--or you must, I mean,' said she abruptly, and with flashing eyes. 'Stop it?' 'Yes, as I mean to be the mistress of my own actions; and the sooner your interference with me ends, the better for us both.' 'What do you mean?' 'What I say, sir!' replied Mary desperately, and with tears in her eyes as she swept from the room; for though she deferred to the years and affection of Sir Piers, she was resolved now to have neither mercy nor toleration for Hew, who eyed her malevolently as she withdrew. Sweet indeed had been the love-passage between these two--Cecil and Mary--knitting their hearts closer together. Affection had been ensured to the full and been accepted to the full; but no promise had been given, and the future was vague as ever.