CHAPTEE XIX. 



ROMEO AND JULIET: WITH JULIET ABSENT. 



A FEW more days of climbing the hills up among 

 the ptarmigan, visits to Loch Na Seachin, and other 

 pleasant places, and our friends' time was up ; they 

 had to leave on the Saturday morning, but as they 

 were to be in the neighbourhood of Dunesk in 

 October, this promised to mitigate the deprivation 

 sure to be felt on their departure. 



I had observed Major Duncan to be occasion- 

 ally dull and distrait lately; not very pronounced, 

 certainly, in one of his calm temperament, but still 

 there teas something, and I fancied it might have 

 to do with the approaching dissolution; which 

 sagacious surmise was soon confirmed in this wise. 



On the afternoon of the Thursday before they 

 left, the Major and I being alone in the library 

 writing letters, I was speaking of the departure, 



