Antonia Ross side by side!  I laughed—­I said, Leo did not look to this a short time ago.  It is the same fotografer; I have had several requests; but only to that one I went, for it is the best one of you he has taken that is seen anywhere.  Of course I have to dress as like Miss Burgoyne as possible, which is a pity to me, for it is not too graceful, as I think I could do; but I complain nothing, since Mr. Lehmann gave me the great advancement; and if you will look at the critiques you will see they say I have not a bad appearance in the part.  As for the briccone—­pah!—­when I talk like this to you, Leo, I despise him—­he is nothing to me—­I would not pay twopence that he should praise me.

“Will you write to me, Leo, and say when you return?  Have you so
much beesness that you have only sent me one letter?  Adieu!

“Your true friend, NINA.”

Well, this prattling letter from Nina caused him some reflection and some uneasy qualms.  He did not so much mind the prospect of having, on his return, to transform his old friend and comrade into his stage-sweetheart, and to make passionate love to her every evening before an audience.  That might be a little embarrassing at first; but the feeling would soon wear off; such circumstances were common and well understood in the theatre, where stage-lovers cease their cooing the moment they withdraw into the wings.  But this other possibility of finding Miss Burgoyne and her friends in the immediate neighborhood of Strathaivron Lodge?  Of course there was no reason why she shouldn’t travel through Ross-shire just as well as any one else.  She knew his address.  If she came anywhere round this way—­say to Kilfearn—­he must needs go to call on her.  Then both Lady Adela Cunyngham and Lord Rockminster had been introduced to Miss Burgoyne in the New Theatre; if he told them, as he ought, on whom he was going to call, might they not want to accompany him and renew the acquaintance?  Lady Adela and her sisters considered themselves the naturally appointed patrons of all professional folk whose names figured in the papers; was it not highly probable that Miss Burgoyne and her friends, whosoever these might be, would receive an invitation to Strathaivron Lodge?  And then?—­why, then might there not be rather too close a resemblance to a band of poor players being entertained by the great people at what Nina imagined to be a castle?  A solitary guest was all very well; had Miss Burgoyne preceded or succeeded him, he could not have objected; but a group of strolling players, as it were?—­might it not look as if they had been summoned to amuse the noble company?  And fancy Miss Burgoyne coming in as a spy upon his mute, and at present quite indefinite, relations with Miss Honnor Cunyngham!—­Miss Burgoyne, who was a remarkably sharp-eyed young woman, and had a clever and merry tongue withal, when she was disposed to be humorous.