Now that Lady Batardeau, on her return to the cantonments, had explained the whole story of the ring, Duncan was--when too late, for his wife was on the sea--full of shame and contrition for his suspicions and severity, and had written to crave the pardon of Alice and insure her return to him again; hence the farewell and departure of 'Mrs. Cameron,' with her overlands and other baggage, as witnessed by the sharp little eyes of Sir Paget Puddicombe at the Waverley Station, and thus it was that, by an unexplained mistake, two fond hearts were separated for ever; but separated they would have been eventually by fate or fortune--the lack of fortune, rather--as time may show. But for a time poor Eveline had to ponder bitterly on the humiliating thought that Evan Cameron had been thinking of _another_ face, form, and name while in the act of caressing herself, and that the other was--as Sir Paget had left them no reason to doubt, and never himself doubted--Evan Cameron's wife! CHAPTER XII. OLIVE'S VISITOR, Another mystery has now to be accounted for--the state in which Allan found Olive when her cry reached him as he idled with his cigar in the grounds at Maviswood in the evening, when the rest of the family circle were in town. Olive was seated alone in one of the drawing-rooms when a gentleman was announced--a gentleman who no doubt thought Allan was absent in Edinburgh also. 'Mr. Holcroft.' 'Mr. Holcroft!' A book she was reading fell from the hand of Olive, and she started to her feet as that personage, hat in hand, stood smilingly before her. For a moment she could scarcely believe her eyes as they met the pale, watery, and shifty ones of her unexpected visitor. Terror and horror filled her heart on finding herself face to face with this man--an assassin in intent! It was too horrible--too _outré_ and grotesque to think of. But what was his intention now? She was not left long in ignorance. Why did she not rush to the bell--summon the household, and have the daring intruder expelled or arrested? But no--she felt a very coward just then, with a great dread of Allan discovering him, and a heavy, sickening foreboding of coming evil. There came dreamily to her memory, too, some threatening words of his when he had said that he would let no man come between them, and that, though he might fail to compel her to love him, he might compel her to marry him: but neither love nor marriage were in the mind of her horrible visitor just then. Mr. Hawke Holcroft seemed rather 'down on his luck,' and looked somewhat shabby and seedy. The last fragment of his patrimony had been swallowed up; his betting-book had proved a mistake, as he had for some time past backed the wrong horses; cards had failed him and play of all kinds; in short, he was desperate, and hence his appearance at Maviswood.