Seeing the cloudy and sad expression of his eye, Olive said, 'You have not come to scold me for anything, Allan. We are at least friends.' 'Would we were more,' said Allan, remembering what his father had urged but a few minutes before. 'Surely to be cousins is a near enough relationship.' 'Olive,' said he, reproachfully, 'unless you have formed a distinct attachment for some one else, I must say I do not understand you.' 'I don't want you to understand me,' she replied, with half-averted face. 'Why are you so hard with me?' he exclaimed, with a wistful, longing, and miserable expression in his eyes. She made no reply, so he spoke again. 'I have had a long consultation with our family agent in Edinburgh.' 'About what?' 'Your affairs and mine, Olive.' '_My_ affairs?' 'Yes, and I have obtained the opinion of ruby Logan's father, and of counsel of much higher--yes, of the highest--repute on the vexed subject of your father's will--vexed at least between you and I, Olive.' She gazed at him with something of vacant surprise blended with inquiry in her face. 'What I am about to suggest may be dangerous, as I do not know the terms on which you permit yourself to be with this--Mr. Holcroft--but I have had excellent legal advice, and----' 'Legal advice--oh, indeed!' she interrupted, with a toss of her pretty head; 'that is well, for the laws as made by you men rank us women with children and lunatics. And what says this advice?' 'That you can be freed from the trammels of your father's will--free, and the inheritrix of your own great wealth.' She regarded him for a minute with blank astonishment; then as bright joy like sunshine spread over her sweet face and sparkled in the depth of her eyes, she exclaimed, in a low voice, 'Free, do you say, free in my own actions, and free to bestow papa's money how and on whom I please?' 'On _whom_ you please,' replied Allan, thinking with intense mortification on Holcroft, and Holcroft only; for personally he was far above thinking of the fortune that might otherwise be his own, as the stars are above the earth. 'Let me but see all this matter fully arranged and then I shall be content,' said he, after a pause, during which they had been regarding each other; he, her with sadness, and she him with bewilderment. 'There are rumours in the air of a turn-up with the Turks, and of a war in Egypt, and right glad I am of that!' 'Why, Allan?' 'Because I'll get attached to the first army corps that sails, even if the Black Watch is not going; but that it is sure to be, as, thank God! the dear old corps is always in everything.' 'And why this joy?' 'To get as far away from you as possible,' he replied, bluntly, in a hollow tone. 'Must you do so, Allan?' 'Yes, unless I mean to drive myself mad.' 'Do you really love me so much--and--and,' she paused, for she seemed touched, her sweet lips were quivering now. 'What more?' 'For myself alone,' she asked, softly. 'Love you--oh, Olive.'