The Washington times., 1912-07-07
CHAPTER XVIII.
Three Women.
DECEMBER night two years
and three months later.

~ and three months later.
n The schoolmaster, James Dali
gleish, was in his ''stewdy." He
was in his usual "stewdious' attitude
fiat on his stomach on the mat, his ell
bows for props, his hands for chin
crutches, and the fender for a reading
desk. The peat fire, the only light in
the room, cast the grotesque shadow of
his whitened, shaggy head on the wall
behind.
The windmill nailed to the apple tree
in the kailyard shrieked outside. But
| the figure on the rag mat never moved.
| The dominic, grown sadly old and some
what childish, was reading his Burns.
His eyes were bent closer to the print
| than of yore, and his lips moved as he
conned the lines:
Then gently scan thy brother man;
Still gentler sister woman.
Though baitn may gang kennie
wrang.
To step aside is human.
AYE, ave." muttered the dominic,
nodding his head. "'Tis human--emi-
From the kitchen came the diminish
ing clatter OF spoons and dishes. Mar
garet would be finished 'redding up"
the tea things. Presently she came and
stood in the doorway for a few mo-
ments, her eyes fixed upon the white,
shaggy head before the fire.
Dalgleish was changed. The last two
years and three months had been
his prince had escaped to France; sor-
row that failure had again marked the
cause of the Jacobite.
He had found joy, too, in the tribula-
tions which beset him whea the English
government sought to cohSict him of
treason. He had suffered for his right
full King-as the dominic still held
Charles Edward. If there was any dis
| appointment, 1t was that his willing
sacrifice had not been accepted. The
English government upon inquiry, had
only learned that kind old man had
sheltered a shipwrecked and helpless
one. 1t could not be shown that the
dominic ever knew what nature of man
he was harboring.
The chieftains had scurried back to
their mountain Businesses, with the eX-
ception of a few-such as Cameron and
the Macdonald and the Macgregor---
who paid visit to foreign parts until
the wind died down. For the rest, In
verlachie was as it had been-externally.
OF internal affairs. such as do not
meet the casual eye. there is still
much TO be told. But the Maclarty
brothers were again on the beach, morn
ing, noon, and night, with their eye on
the weather-point; the anvil was ring
ing behind the schoolhouse; Sandy Nc,
Clung, Davie Blue, Hughie Gibson, and
British Will nightly foregathered at
"Gangy" Becketts; and the windmill
on the apple tree shrieked like wrath
when the wind blew up from the At
lantic.
Margaret was changed. although in
the change there was nothing unex-
pected to the eye. She was no longer
girl. She was in the full flush OF
womanhood, and her quiet reserve and
tntrospectve air might we'll have been
part Of a natural development OF char
acter.
, that all the bitterness her heart enter
| tained against Charles Edward CasimiI
was for the poor old man on the rag
mat. The white hair was the mark OF
1t, and that she could never forgive
at least not while the man was ab:
? sent. If he would come back and-apd
let her show him that white head, and
! well. he would not come again, and sc
! she would remain inconsistently Sittei
to the end.
The fiddle hung over the bookshelf al
: Of yore. but it was seldom touched now
1t hurt her to play, and 1t moved tht
: old man too deeply. He would burs
! into tears, or rise to his feet and wall
! up and down the 'stewdy" in a white
| that was agonizingly embittering to her
l No, the fiddle was seldom touched now
adays. She did not offer to play; HI
did not ask
. while. He read her a message from
Scott, and expounded its meaning in &
childishly pedantic way. By and by sh'
Z arose and, putting on shawl, left th'
II was a clear night, with wind rush
ing among stars that seemed to sWa!
in the wide heavens. Stars! 1t brough
a thrill of ancient Joy to her heart, TO
; she remembered that 1t was Christina
she climbed the cobbled street an
a turned off into the lane which brough
4 her to the Back road Of the village
= Janet's house, and entered withou
y waiting for response.
a Janet's family" was now assembled
Peggy Wallace was sitting by the fire
k talking quietly with the maternal Jane,
y who was knitting pair OF stockings
J: The two women looked up and smiled
. | welcome to the third.
y THE family settled down. Their in
. tragedy which each carried in her heart
: Janet-the patient, motherly Janet
p went on with her knitting, smiling a
% the remarks of the younger sisters.
Peggy fished some crochet work froI
= the folds of her dress and began plyin
u her bone needle. She seemed happie
}. tfan she had been two years before
u The man-the serpent of her Eden
'r blame of his death first upon Capital
) KiIby, for II became known that theT
lad been bad blood, although the res
n son was never surmised.
lndl SllOTI u COuNlSt'
e government had the Red Mole arreS
ed. (The leader of the smugglers quie
ly retired behind his cloak of innoceI
responsibility, as Capt. John Grant, an
deplored the "evils of the times.O
=. was when the Red Mole was in dangt
1 of "sair throat" that Grant passe
the wcrd and a paper. Then II becan
= apparent that Fitzwilliam had met h
death at the hands OF the Pretender.
r The Pretender? He he'd vanished II
IN day after the finding of Fitzwilliam
n body. No doubt he had escaped
At France. Thus ended the Stuart risir
1t of 1912.
D. Yes, Peggy was happier. She had n,
IN seen Kilby in two years. But from
foreign field of war she had received
le Eote from a brother officer, who he
rt' never seen Peggy, and could only az
st dress her as Peggy Wallace, Inve
DR. lachie, Scotland"
m III / know anything of George Kilb
Is and of his affairs said the note, "h
will return TO Inverlachie sooner
ne later" II was unsigned
IN Margaret was a mystery to the otht
two, as she was in many ways to he
ht self She had returned as myst,
Sc rIously as she had disappeared from h,
fathers house two years ana thr,
Is months before. Only her father kne
." where she had been. what she had don
and something OF what she had unde