She was so tired of this among the women at
the castle, that it was rather a dismay to her to
hear Sir Archie on the subject.

"Is this the new gown, Aunt Margaret?" he
would ask, touching her sleeve. "I do assure
you I am very anxious to see you in that
dress."

And then he would look from Mrs. Hazeldean
to Hester, and from Hester to Mrs. Hazeldean,
till Hester would shrink back into her
chair and feel intolerably guilty, being so
conscious as she was of her strange idleness. But
Mrs. Hazeldean would say, smiling,

"Patience, patience! I am in no hurry with
that gown, Archie."

And there were times as well when Sir
Archie happened in after he had seen his
aunt's cloak fluttering alone upon the road, and
gave Hester still further lessons in making
friends with him. I have not time now to set
down the conversations which passed between
them, but they were quaint enough and simple
enough to put to shame the would-be wiser
gossip of many people who would have liked to
hear them. There was not a compliment in the
whole of them, and yet, having assured Mrs.
Hazeldean that he would not disturb Hester, Sir
Archie was hardly so careful as he might have
been. Hester's simplicity began to wonder.
She began to tremble when she saw Sir Archie
coming down the avenue alone, and to wish
that Mrs. Hazeldean would not go out without
her. I do not know how it was that he
betrayed himself so far one day as to send Hester,
after his departure, flying up the stairs on the
tip-toe of terror lest the very walls should hear
her heart beating with delight, sadly wrong,
but also with honest fear and remorse. What
way was this that the sun had begun to shine,
catching up all the colours of the world, and
weaving them together with its rays in an
inextricable confusion of enchantment? Oh, Miss
Janet Golden, what would you think of this?
Oh, Sir Archie, the splendid and the great, why
could you not remain the hero you used to be?
Sat down Hester and wept. But the next day
she arose up in amazement at her silly mistake.
And she set to work to extol every one except
herself. And this strange blunder which she
had fallen into was not to be cleared up in her
own mind, without leaving some traces which
might endure many a day. It was a great pity
she had been born such a fool, Hester thought.
But having set herself somewhat to rights, she
acknowledged that she had received a proper
check for her forgetfulness of matters most
important. And she tasked herself to improve her
present opportunity of learning the political
feelings of Sir Archie Munro. And she wrote
many piteous letters on this subject to Lady
Humphrey.

Mrs. Hazeldean was so persistently ingenious
in delaying Hester's operations on her dress that
it required a very startling threat to bring her
to her senses. Lady Helen and Miss Madge
volunteered a sisterly excursion to her dwelling
to inspect the many improvements which must
have been made in dear Margaret's wardrobe
by this time.

This proposal had its effect, and Hester was
packed up and returned to her employers. And
a few days afterwards Mrs. Hazeldean came to
dine at the castle.

"How do you like my new dress?" whispered
she to her nephew, as she took her seat by his
side at the dinner-table. And she slightly held
up as she spoke a silken purple fold of her
right royal-looking robe.

Sir Archie flashed a bright look into her
smiling face, and helped her to turkey. This
was no time for sentiment. But it was
remarked by Lady Helen, when the ladies reached
the drawing-room, that dear Archie had been
more like himself during dinner-time to-day
than ever she had seen him since these hideous
doings had begun in the country.

"And she sewed all this, did she?" he said,
having found his way to Mrs. Hazeldean's side
immediately on his reappearance in the drawing
room. "Every stitch of it?" he asked,
examining the long-expected gown. "And what
verdict have you brought me wrapped up in the
folds of this handsome skirt?"

"Here is my answer," said Mrs. Hazeldean,
as the door opened and Hester appeared, led by
the Honourable Madge, who had seconded, quite
rapturously, dear Margaret's request that the
young inmate of the tower-room should be
invited to the drawing-room; this being only a
family party, no high-born guests present to
be shocked. And Hester, in her trepidation at
such condescension, had quite forgotten her
resolution announced to Madge, of confining
herself to the use of threadbare garments for
the remainder of her life, and had recognised
the expedience of clothing herself in the pretty
grey silk, and long coral ear-rings, which had so
nearly brought her into trouble with the Mother
Augustine. And in these, and with her hair
packed round her head like so much twisted
bullion, and with her face as fresh and fair as
it could be, it were quite hopeless to find a
sweeter-looking young thing than our Hester
looked on the occasion.

CHAPTER XIX. MISS MADGE'S REBEL.

LADY HELEN MUNRO might live with her
ears full of cotton wool, and Miss Janet Golden
might toss her head at having her horses turned
on the road when going out for an evening's
amusement; but there were fierce doings
making a hot progress through the country,
the perpetrators of which were but little
concerned for the convenience of fair ladies.

Dire tidings did the daily post now bring to
the peaceful fishing village, that had sat,
gratefully, for so many hundred years, in the lap of
its fertile glens, at the feet of its bountiful bay.
A hostile soldiery, utterly unchecked in their
terrible license, scoured the land. The flower
of the population was melting off the mountain-
sides; dales and hamlets were giving up their
strength and pride to the prison, the torture,
and the gibbet. Even already in our glens the