Then something smote hard and cold on Lady Betty’s heart, and she knew by the inward vision of her soul that the thing on which she had built high her pride and her hope would never take place. She did not know what was going to happen to prevent it, but she felt that Neil’s cause was lost from that hour! She suffered no depression to manifest itself, however. She undertook to still Kitty’s garrulous questioning, and she herself saw Isla off at the station by the night train. But she did not close an eye all that night, being haunted by a sense of the futility of earthly planning and of the vanity of human hopes. Isla arrived at Charing Cross Station at five o’clock in the afternoon of one of the loveliest of spring days. By that time she had a quite clear idea of what she wished to do. Speaking of it afterwards, she declared that each step of the way seemed to have been planned out for her, leaving her in no doubt whatever about the next. She had her luggage transferred to the Charing Cross Hotel, engaged a room for the night, and, having enjoyed a very excellent cup of tea, sallied forth to take an omnibus for the West End. Those weeks spent under Agnes Fraser’s roof, and the long days she had utilized in traversing the length and breadth of London in search of impossible employment, had given her an intimate knowledge of the best and quickest and most economical means of transit. But on a pleasant spring evening the omnibus was the most enjoyable. She had bought a copy of the "Morning Post" at the station, and she unfolded it in her seat with a view to taking a glance through the pages. There two items of intelligence which were of the deepest interest to her met her eyes. The first was purely personal and occurred a little way down the page, below the Court Circular. "A marriage has been arranged, and will take place before the end of the season, between Malcolm John Mackinnon, Esq. of Achree and Glenogle, and Mrs. Rodney Payne of Carleton, Virginia, and 31 Avenue Castellare, Champs Elysees, Paris." Her face flushed as she read these significant words and for the moment she felt as if all her fellow-travellers had read them with her and were aware of their meaning. She sat a long time pondering, surprised beyond measure at the announcement, which seemed premature. She wondered who was responsible for its appearance, but decided that it was probably Malcolm who had sent it to the newspaper for the purpose of establishing his credit and consolidating his position. As yet Isla was disposed to be hard on him and to credit him with merely sordid motives.