'What I ask, Mary; and I wish you to know, further, that he is every way unworthy the consideration of any girl--wholly unworthy the kindness I have wasted on him.' 'Unworthy!' repeated Mary, faintly; and yet her heart rebelled, for she now recognised the malevolent influence of Hew. 'I have other views for your future, as you know, dear Mary--views long cherished and most dear to me, and I am not going to have my plans and prospects marred by a fortune-hunting subaltern and a romantic girl's folly. Understand me, Mary, and the power your father's will has given me over you and your fortune.' Mary remained silent, but tears welled up in her eyes--tears that sprang from emotions of anger as much as annoyance and intense mortification. 'I don't object to the fellow because he is a subaltern, with little, if anything, more than his pay,' said Sir Piers, as if ashamed of using the military rank as an adjective; 'but I do object to this, Mary, as your guardian and only kinsman, in whose hands the whole of your fortune is vested, to bestow, so far as possible, on my heir of entail, who is to share it with you. But here, if all I am told is true, you have been tempted--you, with beauty and attractions that might win a coronet--you, with an inheritance, and certainly with a name, second to none in Scotland--to cast your lot, perhaps, with one destitute of position, save that which a commission gives him--one without family or friends either, so far as we know,' continued the general, musing, or talking himself into a fit of anger; 'as Hew has hinted, the first of his race--a gambler, too----' 'A gambler, grand-uncle?' 'A gambler--and worse--who has sorely fleeced poor Hew! But I shall amply reimburse him, as it was by my old-fashioned folly our unlucky guest came here. How I shall be able to receive him at dinner to-day I scarcely know, for now I consider his presence in Eaglescraig an insult. You may have been foolish--girlish, Mary; but I know that you won't further vex your old grand-uncle, who loves you so, but will sedulously avoid or shun this person, Falconer, during the few hours he is under our roof: and when he leaves it let his existence be to you as a thing of the past--as that of the dead--but the dead who are forgotten!' And with this cruel advice, which was all the more cruel and impressive from being coolly, calmly, and deliberately given, the general rose and quitted the library, leaving Mary in a flood of tears and quite overwhelmed with dismay; not at the invectives bestowed upon Falconer, as she knew their source and true value, but at the hostility so suddenly developed by Sir Piers, and the long term of domestic misery she saw before her in the future. But, as indignation swelled in her heart against Hew, she dried her tears and gathered a courage from her growing anger. Yet she drew her breath with difficulty, and pressed a hand upon her side as if a pang of pain was there.