CHAPTER XXI. COUNT VICTOR CHANGES HIS QUARTERS. COUNT VICTOR had said Au revoir to Doom Castle that afternoon. He Mungo had rowed him down by boat to the harbour and left him with his valise at the inn, pleased mightily that his cares as garrison were to be relieved by the departure of one who so much attracted the unpleasant attentions of nocturnal foes, and returned home with the easiest mind he had enjoyed since the fateful day the Frenchman waded to the rock. As for Count Victor, his feelings were mingled. had left Doom from a double sense of duty, and yet had he been another man he would have bided for love. After last evening's uproar, plain decency demanded that Jonah should obviate a repetition by removing himself elsewhere. There was also another consideration as pregnant, yet more delicate: the traditions of his class and family as well as his natural sense of honour compelled his separation from the fascinating influence of the ingenuous woman whose affections were pledged in another quarter. In a couple of days he had fallen desperately in love with Olivia-a precipitation that might seem ridiculous in any man of the world who was not a Montaiglon satiated by acquaintance with scores of Dame Stratagems, fair intrigueuses and puppets without hearts below their modish bodices. Olivia charmed by her freshness, and the simple frankness of her nature, with its deep emotions, gave him infinitely more surprise and thrill than any woman he had met before. "Wisdom wanting absolute honesty," he told himself, "is only craft: I discover that a monstrous deal of cleverness I have seen in her sex was only another kind of cosmetic daubed on with a sponge." And then, too, Olivia that morning seemed to have become all of a sudden very cold to him. He was piqued at her silence, he was more than piqued to discover that she too, like Mungo, obviously considered his removal a relief. Behold him, then, with his quarters taken in the Boar's Head Inn, whence by good luck the legal gang of Edinburgh had some hours before departed, standing in the entrance feeling himself more the foreigner than ever, with the vexing reflection that he had not made any progress in the object of his embassy, but, on the contrary, had lost no little degree of his zest therein. The sound of the flageolet was at once a blow and a salute. That unaccomplished air had helped. to woo Olivia in her bower, but yet it gave a link with her, the solace of the thought that here was one she knew. Was it not something of good fortune that it should lead him to identify and meet one whose very name was still unknown to him, but with whom he was, in a faint measure, on slight terms of confederacy through the confession of Olivia and the confidence of Mungo Boyd? 66 Toujours l'audace !" thought he, and he asked for the innkeeper's introduction to the performer. "If it may be permitted, and the gentleman is not too pressingly engaged." "Indeed," said the innkeeper -a jovial rosy gentleman, typical of his kind-"indeed, and it may very well be permitted, and it would not be altogether to my disadvantage that his lordship should be out of there, for the Bailies cannot very well be drinking deep and listening to Mr Simon MacTag gart's songs, as I have experienced afore. The name?" "He never heard it," said Count Victor, "but it happens to be Montaiglon, and I was till this moment in the odd position of not knowing his, though we have a common friend." A few minutes later the Chamberlain stood before him with the end of the flageolet protruding from the breast of his coat. As they met in the narrow confine of the lobbyon either hand of them closed rooms noisy with clink of drinking-ware, with laugh and jest and all that rumour of carouse-Montaiglon's first impression was exceeding favourable. This Chamberlain pleased his eye to start with; his manner was finebred in spite of a second's confusion; his accent was cordial, and the flageolet, displayed with no attempt at concealment, captured the heart of the Frenchman, who had been long enough in these isles to weary of a national character that dare not surrender itself to any unbusiness-like frisking in the meadows. And one thing more there was revealed — here was the kilted gallant of the miniature in Olivia's chamber, and here was the unfriendly horseman of the wood, here, in fine, was the lover of the story, and the jealousy (if it was a jealousy) he had felt in the wood, forgotten, for he smiled. But now that he was face to face with Olivia's lover, Count Victor discovered that he had not the slightest excuse for referring to her who was the only association between them! The lady herself and Mungo Boyd had conveyed a sense of very close conspiracy between all four, but from neither the lady nor any one else in Doom had he any passport to the friendship of this gentleman. It was only for a moment the difficulties of the situation mastered him. "I have permitted myself, monsieur, to intrude upon you with an excuse that must seem scan "With the particle, I think?" said Sim MacTaggart. Count Victor started slightly. "But yes," said he, "it is so, though I never march with much baggage, and a De to a traveller is like a second hat. It is, then, that it is perhaps unnecessary to say more of myself?" The Chamberlain with much bonhomie grasped his hand. "M. Montaiglon," said he, "I am very proud to meet you. I fancy a certain lady and I owe something to your consideration, and Simon MacTaggart stands upon no ceremony." Count Victor winced slightly at the conjunction, but otherwise he was delighted. said he. "Cere "I am ravished, monsieur ! mony is like some people's assumption of dignity— the false bottoms they put in their boots to conceal the fact that they are under the average height, is it not?" Arm in arm they went out in front of the inn and walked along the bay, and the Provost and the Bailies were left mourning for their king. "You must not fancy the name and reputation of the gentlemen of Cammercy unknown in these parts," said the Chamberlain. "When the lady— who need not be more specifically mentioned-told me you had come to Doom, it was like the overcome of a song at first that I had heard of you before. And now that I see you, I mind the story went, when I was at Dunkerque some years ago, that Count Victor Jean, if all his other natural gifts had failed him, might have made a noble fortune as a maître d'escrime. Sir, I am an indifferent hand with the rapier myself, but I aye liked to see a man that was its master." "You are very good," said Montaiglon; "and yet such a reputation, exaggerated as I fear it may be, is not, by my faith! the one I should desire under the circumstances that, as you have doubtless further heard, bring me here." "About that, M. Montaiglon, it is perhaps as well that the Duke of Argyll's Chamberlain should know nothing at all. You are a wild lot, my gallant Jacobites "he laughed softly as he spoke."Between ourselves I have been more than bottle friends with some lovable persons on your side of the house, and you will be good enough to consider Simon MacTaggart no politician, though the Duke's Chamberlain ex officio is bound to be enemy to every man who will not swear King George the best of monarchs." "From what I know of affairs in Europe now, and for all our heroics of invasion," said Count Victor, "his Majesty is like to remain in undisputed possession, and you may take my word for it, no affair of high politics is responsible for my being here. Monsieur himself has doubtless had affairs. I am seeking but for one man "So the "Drimdarroch," said the Chamberlain. lady told me. Our Drimdarroch will not provide very much interest for a maître d'escrime," and he laughed as he pictured Petullo the writer shivering before a flash of steel. "Ah! you speak of the lawyer: Doom told me of him, and as he was good enough to interest himself in my lodging in this place, I must make him my compliments at the earliest and tell him I have settled down for myself in the auberge." "To that much at least I can help you, though in the other affair I'm neutral in spite of my interest in any ploy of the kind. There's Petullo's house across the way; I'm on certain terms with him; if you care, we could see him now." 66 Le |