But the second enclosure was by far the more surprising.  It was in a lady’s hand of writ. “Maister Dauvit Balfour is informed a friend was speiring for him, and her eyes were of the grey,” it ran—­and seemed so extraordinary a piece to come to my hands at such a moment and under cover of a Government seal, that I stood stupid.  Catriona’s grey eyes shone in my remembrance.  I thought, with a bound of pleasure, she must be the friend.  But who should the writer be, to have her billet thus enclosed with Prestongrange’s?  And of all wonders, why was it thought needful to give me this pleasing but most inconsequential intelligence upon the Bass?  For the writer, I could hit upon none possible except Miss Grant.  Her family, I remembered, had remarked on Catriona’s eyes and even named her for their colour; and she herself had been much in the habit to address me with a broad pronunciation, by way of a sniff, I supposed, at my rusticity.  No doubt, besides, but she lived in the same house as this letter came from.  So there remained but one step to be accounted for; and that was how Prestongrange should have permitted her at all in an affair so secret, or let her daft-like billet go in the same cover with his own.  But even here I had a glimmering.  For, first of all, there was something rather alarming about the young lady, and papa might be more under her domination than I knew.  And second, there was the man’s continual policy to be remembered, how his conduct had been continually mingled with caresses, and he had scarce ever, in the midst of so much contention, laid aside a mask of friendship.  He must conceive that my imprisonment had incensed me.  Perhaps this little jesting, friendly message was intended to disarm my rancour?

I will be honest—­and I think it did.  I felt a sudden warmth towards that beautiful Miss Grant, that she should stoop to so much interest in my affairs.  The summoning up of Catriona moved me of itself to milder and more cowardly counsels.  If the Advocate knew of her and of our acquaintance—­if I should please him by some of that “discretion” at which his letter pointed—­to what might not this lead? In vain is the net spread in the sight of any fowl, the scripture says.  Well, fowls must be wiser than folk!  For I thought I perceived the policy, and yet fell in with it.

I was in this frame, my heart beating, the grey eyes plain before me like two stars, when Andie broke in upon my musing.

“I see ye hae gotten guid news,” said he.

I found him looking curiously in my face; with that, there came before me like a vision of James Stewart and the court of Inverary; and my mind turned at once like a door upon its hinges.  Trials, I reflected, sometimes draw out longer than is looked for.  Even if I came to Inverary just too late, something might yet be attempted in the interests of James—­and in those of my own character, the best would be accomplished.  In a moment, it seemed without thought, I had a plan devised.