Walter Murie had chosen politics as a profession long ago, even when he was an undergraduate.  He had already eaten his dinners in London, and had been called to the Bar as the first step towards a political career.  He had a relative in the Foreign Office, while his uncle had held an Under-Secretaryship in the late Government.  Therefore he had influence, and hoped by its aid to secure some safe seat.  Already he had studied both home and foreign affairs very closely, and had on two occasions written articles in the Times upon that most vexed and difficult question, the pacification of Macedonia.  He was a very fair speaker, too, and on several occasions he had seconded resolutions and made quite clever speeches at political gatherings in his own county, Perthshire.  Indeed, politics was his hobby; and, with money at his command and influence in high quarters, there was no reason why he should not within the next few years gain a seat in the House.  With Sir Henry Heyburn he often had long and serious chats.  The brilliant politician, whose career had so suddenly and tragically been cut short, gave him much good advice, pointing out the special questions he should study in order to become an authority.  This is the age of specialising, and in politics it is just as essential to be a specialist as it is in the medical, legal, or any other profession.

In a few days the young man was returning to his dingy chambers in the Temple, to pore again over those mouldy tomes of law; therefore almost daily he ran over to Glencardine to chat with the blind Baronet, and to have quiet walks with the sweet girl who looked so dainty in her fresh white frocks, and whose warm kisses were so soft and caressing.

Surely no pair, even in the bygone days of knight and dame, the days of real romance, were more devoted to each other.  With satisfaction he saw that Gabrielle’s apparent indifference had now worn off.  It had been but the mask of a woman’s whim, and as such he treated it.

One afternoon, after tea out on the lawn, they were walking together by the bypath to the lodge in order to meet Lady Heyburn, who had gone into the village to visit a bedridden old lady.  Hand-in-hand they were strolling, for on the morrow he was going south, and would probably be absent for some months.

The girl had allowed herself to remain in her lover’s arms in one long kiss of perfect ecstasy.  Then, with a sigh of regret, she had held his hand and gone forward again without a word.  When Walter had left, the sun of her young life would have set, for after all it was not exactly exciting to be the eyes and ears of a man who was blind.  And there was always at her side that man whom she hated, and who, she knew, was her bitterest foe—­James Flockart.

Of late her father seemed to have taken him strangely into his confidence.  Why, she could not tell.  A sudden change of front on the Baronet’s part was unusual; but as she watched with sinking heart she could not conceal from herself the fact that Flockart now exercised considerable influence over her father—­an influence which in some matters had already proved to be greater than her own.