"How this little rebuff nettles you! Take courage, Cosmo," said his mother, almost laughing at his angry and odd enumeration of his many good qualities. "Well, I have changed my mind many times; so do women, and so may Flora. This is a boy's love; she will tire of his idea, and then is my time to cut in and win in a canter. You, my dear mother, yourself once loved, before my father proposed----" "Stay," said Lady Rohallion, interrupting, with sudden agitation, and hastening angrily to change the unwelcome topic; "a sudden light breaks upon me! Cosmo, on the night you arrived, it seemed to me you spoke very oddly of Flora Warrender and Quentin Kennedy." "How--about something in the avenue, was it?" "Yes; that you had seen them exchanging marks of their mutual good will, or words to that effect." "Exactly so, my Lady Rohallion," said Cosmo, slowly emitting the smoke of his pipe. "What did you mean, Cosmo?" she demanded, with increasing asperity. "Much more than I said, mother." "That you saw Quentin kissing Flora?" "Or Flora kissing Quentin, my dear lady mother, I don't think it makes much difference," said he, with an angry laugh, while she almost trembled with indignation; "but what do you think of your amiable ward and your protégé--a lively young fellow, isn't he?" "I ought to have been prepared for this," said Lady Rohallion; "indeed, Eleonora Eglinton forewarned me that something of this kind might happen. A separation by school, college, or something else, should have been made whenever Flora came here. I must consult Rohallion, and have such arrangements made for Quentin as shall prevent his interference with the views we have so long cherished for our only son. The foolish girl--the presumptuous boy--to be actually kissing her!" "Shameful, isn't it?" said Cosmo, who had been despatched somewhat precipitately into the Guards for making love to his mother's maids. "Such vagaries must be controlled and punished." "He should have been gazetted a year ago to a West India Regiment, or one of the eight Hottentot Battalions at the Cape; they are quite good enough for such as he; or send him still-hunting with a line regiment into Ireland, where slugs from behind a hedge may send him to the devil before his time." "Oh fie, Cosmo, you are cruel and unjust;" but she added bitterly as pride of birth, her only failing or weakness, got the mastery for the moment; "no unknown waif, no nameless person like this youth Kennedy shall come between my son, the Master of Rohallion, and our long cherished purpose--no, assuredly! Andrews," she added, raising her voice, as the thin, spare military valet passed through the library, "desire Miss Warrender to speak with me in the yellow drawing-room, before the bell rings for supper." Then leaving her son, Lady Rohallion swept out of the library to have a solemn interview with her ward. The last flush of sunset had died away, and one by one the stars were shining out.