At the story of Cameron, Eveline sprang from her seat, while a little gasping cry escaped her, and Lord Aberfeldie was rather sorry to see her mother's face darken. 'Evan Cameron--Evan Cameron alive!' exclaimed Lady Aberfeldie, incredulously. 'Alive, and well! Old Stratherroch, his father, used to say that the men of the Black Watch were deuced hard to kill, and, by Jove! he was right. For the old man's sake, I am glad that God has spared the boy!' Unable to realise the situation, poor Eveline felt stupefied! CHAPTER XVIII. CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE. Olive heard all her uncle had to relate of the condition in which he found Allan, and, stealing away, she assumed her hat and sunshade, and, accompanied by Clairette, undeterred by any risks she might run in a strange place, issued into the somewhat European-looking streets of Ismailia, over which she could see the great palace of the Khedive looming in the distance, about two miles off; and obtaining the guidance of a passing soldier--a Seaforth Highlander--she bent her steps direct to the military hospital. In the depth of her love, in the keenness of her anxiety--her remorse, too, for all she had, in some sense unwittingly, made Allan endure--she cast the idea of strict propriety and the amenities of society to the winds, and, following the generous impulses of her own heart, resolved to see Allan, if she could, without delay. She passed the temporary burying-ground, with its rows of labelled tent-pegs, without a shudder, as she knew not what lay there; anon past wards where lay patients suffering from sunstroke and ophthalmia, as she could see by the sufferers wearing blue-veils and dark glasses, till she was ushered into a species of office, where a staff-surgeon in undress uniform greeted her with some surprise and _empressement_. He had not seen an English girl--especially one of Olive's style and beauty--for a considerable time past, perhaps, and he looked with genuine interest on Olive, her half-opened mouth, her soft, earnest eyes, her trembling lips, and the tears that clung to her long lashes. Shyly she asked if it were possible to see Captain Graham, of the Black Watch, who was a patient. He smiled, and shook his head. 'Do permit me, sir,' she asked, with half-clasped hands and her eyes full of entreaty. 'Do be reasonable, Miss--Raymond,' said he, glancing at her card, which an orderly had given him. 'Your presence would but excite him too much. It will be folly on your part to undo all our precautions simply from a mere desire, however natural, to speak with or see Captain Graham.' 'Oh, sir, if you knew all!' 'All that can be done for him is being done. Besides, there is danger in being near him.' 'Danger!' 'To you.' 'I care not. Why?' 'Enteric fever takes a typhoid form at times.' 'Fear not for me--I am his cousin--his promised wife!' urged Olive, piteously.