Though she had not spoken of it, Arctura had had more than a
suspicion that something was going on between her cousin and the
pretty maid; for the little window of her sitting room partially
overlooked a certain retired spot favoured of the lovers; and after
Eppy left the house, Davie, though he did not associate the facts,
noted that she was more cheerful than before. But there was no
enlargement of intercourse between her and Forgue. They knew it was
the wish of the head of the house that they should marry, but the
earl had been wise enough to say nothing openly to either of them:
he believed the thing would have a better chance on its own merits;
and as yet they had shown no sign of drawing to each other. It
might, perhaps, have been otherwise on his part had not the young
lord been taken with the pretty housemaid, though at first he had
thought of nothing more than a little passing flirtation, reckoning
his advantage with her by the height on which he stood in his own
regard; but it was from no jealousy that Arctura was relieved by the
departure of Eppy. She had never seen anything attractive in her
cousin, and her religious impressions would have been enough to
protect her from any drawing to him: had they not poisoned in her
even the virtue of common house-friendliness toward a very different
man? The sense of relief she had when Eppy went, lay in being
delivered from the presence of something clandestine, with which she
could not interfere so far as to confess knowledge of it.
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