"It is a great pleasure to see you again," he said, bowing low before Nancy.
"You have been away a long time," she answered.
"The longest month that I have ever spent," he returned.
"The Highlands were not merry?" she asked.
"I should rather, were it mine to choose, that you were glad to have me find them dull," he answered.
"Would that be quite friendly?" she inquired, with a smile of intentional misunderstanding.
"I am scarce asking for friendship," he returned, and there was no mistaking the intent of either word or eye.
"By the way," he continued, "I have ridden half over Scotland and laid by four horses to be here this afternoon; for which," he added, with the little outward wave of his hand which became him so well, "I am claiming no merit; for is there a man who knows you who would have done otherwise?"
A look passed between them, a look which I was at a complete loss to understand, as she answered, with a laugh:
"I think Mr. Pitcairn might successfully have struggled with the temptation of laming horses to see me."
"But," the duke retorted, "as you told me yourself on that memorable night we first met, 'Pitcairn's not rightly a man; he's just a head.'"
"In many ways," responded Nancy, and her eyelids drooped at her own audacity, "in many ways he reminds me of you, your grace!"
The duke smiled back at her with a little drawing together of the eyelids, which I had learned to know so well.
"I have," he said, "nearly a fortnight to spend in Edinburgh, in which I shall make it the effort of my life to show you the difference between us."
It was the morning after the outdoor party that Danvers came into the breakfast-room with a pleasant excitement showing in his face.
"I've a present for you," he said, going over to Nancy, who had not left the table.
"For you--though I'm far from sure that you deserve it, for if there's a man in Edinburgh this morning whom ye haven't in love with ye, he's blind. However," he laughed, "we'll waive that," and he took a box from his pocket and held it above his head.
"Then you sha'n't have it," he said with great determination, moving as though to put it in his pocket.
"I'll go and write some letters, then," she remarked calmly, starting toward the door.
