Evan had loved Eveline as a maiden; he had trained himself to suffer, endure, and think of her as a wife; but now he thanked God that he had not to think of her as a mother--the mother of a wretched little Puddicombe!
Lady Aberfeldie, who had fresh views concerning her daughter, was somewhat irate when--on her return from the city of the Caliphs and Khedives--the latter, with perfect deliberation, informed her that Evan Cameron had been at the villa to see Allan, and had paid her a long visit.
'He spoke of his old fancy for you, no doubt?' said Lady Aberfeldie, rather freezingly.
'He had not the hardihood to ask you to marry him?'
'But I suppose he will presume to do so in time?'
'I have no doubt of it, dearest mamma,' replied Eveline, attempting to kiss her; but my Lady Aberfeldie was in no fit of effusion, and coldly tendered her cheek. 'Was not his escape miraculous, mamma?'
'Just learn this, dearest mamma; I married a short time ago to please you, and, now that God in His goodness has spared and restored Evan to me, I shall marry next to please myself.'
'It is very strange how some girls get it into their head that there is a special virtue in a man because he is poor.'
'Evan isn't poor now,' replied Eveline, stoutly. 'Stratherroch is nearly free, and, if it were not, I have enough for two.'
'Your jointure dies with you,' said Lady Aberfeldie, sourly.
'Dear Evan will never think of that, mamma; and long before _that_ day comes every acre, every tuft of heather in Stratherroch will be disencumbered and free.'
'You have schemed out the whole programme. But as your father's daughter, and the widow of Sir Paget Puddicombe, Baronet, you are entitled to look higher.'
'I don't want to do so, mamma,' said Eveline, coyly and laughingly; 'you see, it is only a case of "heaping up riches, and ye know not who shall gather them."'
Eveline was in a kind of triumphant and defiant mood, such as her mother had never seen her in before, for she added,
'The whirligig of time brings curious things to pass, so Lady Puddicombe will be Mrs. Cameron of Stratherroch after all.'
So the days stole on pleasantly by the Lake of Timsah. Allan grew well rapidly, and, now that she was free and under better auspices, Evan Cameron daily discovered in Eveline some new trait of character that rendered her more worthy of his love and esteem--or indicative that those qualities of passion and tenderness that first excited his interest in her had ripened under all she had undergone--the sorrow and separation that had tried and purified their mutual love, as gold is tried by fire.