'Were you and that fellow long in the grounds to-day?' he asked bluntly, and with anger in his eyes. 'What if we were?' was the defiant reply. 'I asked you a question, cousin.' 'One you have no right to ask.' 'No right?' 'None!' said she, with decision. 'Come, I like that! I am your cousin.' 'Nothing more, thank goodness!--and scarcely even that, save by name; and you are not my mentor.' 'If I were so----' 'Well, sir; if you were?' 'I should say that I was extremely sorry to meet you and Falconer together, as I met you just now. I consider it most unseemly!' 'Are you my guardian, Hew?' asked the little beauty, with growing irritation. 'Would that I were so, legally!' 'I cannot agree with you,' responded Mary, with a merry laugh. 'I regret to see how this intimacy has grown between you and an utter stranger.' 'Pray what can it matter to you who my gentlemen friends are?' 'How can you adopt this tone to me, knowing what you do of Sir Piers' intentions, Mary? As for this fellow----' 'Fellow? What has he done to offend you, Hew Montgomerie, that you speak of him in this style?' 'I was only about to remark that, like Oliver Twist, I have no doubt that he can trace his genealogy all the way back to his parents--to his mother, at least, for I suppose he has, or had, such a relative,' was the coarse and bitter sneer of Hew; 'but that measure of ancestry will scarcely suit the standard of Sir Piers Montgomerie.' Mary remembered the little episode of the 'Birthday Book,' and her heart for a moment sank, and her countenance fell. 'What _do_ you mean?' she asked. 'I know--what I know--that is all,' replied Hew, malevolently. 'And I know that you are extremely rude and ill-bred,' said Mary, as she swept away from him, and with difficulty restrained her tears, while Hew looked after her with a scowl that was strangely mingled with a triumphant smile. He did not knit his eyebrows, for he had little or nothing in that way to knit; but his closely-set eyes twinkled viciously and furtively, as he began to feel that the power he once possessed, or hoped to possess, over Mary, and more especially over her fortune, was slipping away; and the emotions of wounded pride, disappointment, avarice, and an odious passion for her that was not love, grew keenly and stingingly in his heart. Next day Cecil's leave would be up, and in the interval, so sedulously did Hew keep guard, that never again had Cecil a chance of addressing Mary alone; but the rival, while thus employed, could see with growing rancour that they looked suspiciously amiable and happy, and could talk confidentially enough with their eyes, if prevented from doing so with their tongues; and now, to preclude any fresh invitations on the general's part, or any further extension of the hospitality of Eaglescraig, Hew resolved, ere their guest departed, to do him all the mischief he could with his host. CHAPTER XI. HEW MAKES MISCHIEF.