Drummond was silent before the poignancy of her tone. Nor could he say that he was altogether astonished, since he knew Malcolm Mackinnon, and was fully aware of part at least of his unspeakable folly and misdoing. "I may as well tell you now," went on Isla hotly. "Soon it will be the common property of the glen. Malcolm has had to send in his papers." "My God, Isla, you don’t say so!" said Drummond, and his fresh, kindly face grew a little white under the shock. She nodded. "Yes--and he owes over two thousand pounds to money-lenders, and our account is over-drawn at the bank. So now you know why the Americans must come to Achree." She leaned back, and a small, very dismal smile just hovered about the corners of her sad, proud mouth. Neil Drummond could scarcely have looked more thunderstruck and overwhelmed had the disaster come to his own Garrion, nor could he have felt it more acutely. He took a turn across the floor, and then he came and stood in front of her, his broad shoulders squared, a sudden look of strength and determination upon his kindly face. "Why didn’t you let us know before things got to this stage, Isla? What are friends for--that’s what I’d like to know? Your silence just shows what a poor place, after all, any of us have in your estimation." "No, no, Neil. But don’t you see it was such a big, desperate, hopeless thing that nobody could give any help in the matter? And the dearer the friends are, the more impossible it would be to take money from them. You must understand that. You do understand it--only it pleases you to be denser than I have ever known you in the whole course of our acquaintance." "The whole course of our acquaintance!" he repeated, half-eagerly, half-wistfully. "It’s been spread over a pretty long period of years now, hasn’t it, Isla?" "Yes, but it looks like centuries. To-day I feel a century old myself." "What you’re needing, my dear, is somebody to take care of you," he said with a great gentleness. "I must speak again, though I promised to be silent till you gave me leave to speak. Won’t you let me step into the breach, Isla? Marry me, and I’ll do my best to smooth things over, and the General shall certainly not leave Achree. Garrion coffers are not so very full just at present, but I think there might be enough raised to prevent that unthinkable catastrophe." She shook her head. "I can’t, Neil, I can’t! Don’t say another word about it." "I’m not asking anything," he said with the humbleness born of a really unselfish love--"only the right to take care of you and shield you and, if need be, fight for you. Malcolm is your brother, Isla, but I’d like to get into grips with him just once to punish him for all these lines that have come on your dear face through him. And if he comes back to the glen I’ll tell him what I think of him, even if it should be the last word I speak in this world!"