But once, when Evan was riding home in the dusk in the vicinity of Maviswood, he passed a wayfarer afoot, in whose face he thought he recognised--nay, was certain he saw--the features of Holcroft. 'Holcroft!' thought Evan; 'a man to guard against, by Jove. What can _he_ be about in this neighbourhood--what but mischief?' He wheeled his horse round, but the man he had seen, had stepped over a stile and disappeared. CHAPTER IX. 'ALICE!' My Lady Aberfeldie was all unconscious of the little romance that had been going on for some weeks past in the green lanes and wooded paths near Maviswood; while Eveline seemed now but to live for the purpose of meeting Evan Cameron, and her loving heart and busy little head were full of cunning schemes and contrivances to escape detection and achieve their meetings, which now seemed to make the whole sense of her existence; and when not with Evan, or if they failed (which was seldom) to see each other, even for a few minutes, her manner became abstracted and triste. But a rude awakening from her joyous dreams was at hand, and certain past events that seemed trivial in themselves were doomed to be recalled to her with a new and terrible significance! They had one more than usually tender meeting and tender parting, because Sir Paget Puddicombe--the _bête noir_, the bugbear of both--was certainly coming to Maviswood, and Eveline was weeping bitterly. 'Take courage--take courage, my darling,' said Evan, as he kissed the tears from her eyes and strained her to his breast before he leaped on his horse; 'for my sake and your own have strength to resist, and all may yet be well--for my sake and your own, dearest Alice,' he added, with quivering lips, and was gone. '_Alice!_' Another's name uttered by his lips involuntarily while his heart seemed to be teeming with tenderness for herself--uttered in that moment of supreme sorrow, passion, and endearment--escaped him mechanically, as it were, yet too evidently by use and wont! What did it mean--what could it mean, but one thing? Her heart stood still for a moment and then beat wildly; she did not hear the noise of his horse's hoofs dying away in the distance, nor did she see his lessening figure, for the powers of hearing and of vision seemed to fail her. She had received a cruel and terrible shock. Had she heard aright, or was it all a delusion of her ear, yet she repeated to herself with pallid face and quivering lips the word 'Alice!' while memory flashed back to the girl she had seen thrice--twice with Evan, and once evidently waiting for him at what seemed their trysting-place.