The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

326 The Highland Monthly.
" ' If you mean Ronald Stuart, who is a thousand times
a better man than you— I would even cast maidenly
modesty to the winds and tell you, for I know it
will cut you to the depth of your black heart—that I love
him and not you !'
" Following these hot and hasty words— I had never
taken a thought of love, but they were strangely soothing
there was a flutter of white among the trees, and I knew
Jessie had fled. It would not have been fair to Walsh to
have met him at that particular instant. He was a passion-
ate fellow, and both of us might have been unhappily rash;
so I walked home, somewhat perturbed by the scene, no
less than by the confession a fit of passion had wrung from
Jessie, poor, honest-hearted girl,
" The remainder of the night I passed in serious
reflection ; and the longer I thought, the more convinced
was I that Jessie required my protection. Her father was
living, but fathers are no use in these matters.
Unscrupulous and defeated, Walsh would rejoice in blazing
it over the country-side that Jessie had confessed her love
for a man who was not courting her, or had any intention
of making her his wife. Even now she would be paying
the penalty of her weakness in tears and sorrow ; I knew
that. There was only one course open to me— I must at
once woo and win her ! The position was unique, was it
not ?"
" Very—but 3/our decision was singularly noble and wise.
I am proud of you, father, for that decision."
" Well, well ; many
—
days had not passed ere the
country-side was ringing with the unexpected news that
Ronald Stuart and not Christopher Walsh was Jessie's
accepted suitor. I did not keep it a secret, you may
depend upon that. Poor Walsh, left without a single foothold
for retaliation—always, I knew, his first thought when
defeated—had a hard time of it, for he was not popular
among the people, either rich or poor, I can say that much.
He was too sour and full of petty spites. But enough