The Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders Author:James Grant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: other things at Abercairnie, renewed and renovated since Augusta's marriage, it threw up a stream of pure and sparkling water. He saw it all now, as the scale... more »s began to fall from his eyes. For life he would be but the barely tolerated adjunct to the earl's bargain ; and there seemed a depth of degradation in the conviction, only equal to the depth of his sorrow, to find that she, after all—after all—was so utterly callous and indifferent to what he might suffer, already ! Hoping against hope, he thought he would woo her anew, and try to win her still, and that all might yet be well; for Duncan was a great believer in the subtle power of love, and perhaps devotion might make her heart expand, as sunshine does the folded leaves of the rosebud. Anon the new-formed hope began to fade, and he, cut to the soul, turned his back with something of a shudder upon the stately pile of Abercairnie, and rode off to join in a long and hard day's drill in the King's Park at Stirling, with a heavier heart than he ever thought to have in his broad and manly breast. Yet he strove to give his brains, or what distress and mortification had left of them, to drilling the united depot, in the loose and new formation, to fight the Afghans, Zulus, or anyone else, and in the confusion of his thoughts, ' loose enough' did Charlie and others think he handled the parade; thus, when he wished for' reinforcements,' he held his plumed bonnet on the point of his claymore, the sign that' no enemy was in sight,' and made such right and left signals that all the skirmishers were clubbed and in utter confusion. CHAPTER XIIL THE CARPET DANCE. After Duncan's return, Charlie Oliphant was certainly invited once or twice formally to Abercairnie Castle, and heand Auriel—he particularly—were content with...« less