There was certainly a building on a magnificent scale going up on a neighboring hill, and he walked toward it.  When half way there a finely-appointed carriage passed him swiftly, but not too swiftly for him to see that Jean and a very handsome man were its occupants.  “It will be her lawyer or architect,” he thought; and he walked rapidly onward, pleased with himself for having put on his very best walking suit.  There were many workmen on the building, and he fell into conversation with a man who was mixing mortar; but all the time he was watching Jean and her escort stepping about the great uncovered spaces of the new dwelling-house with such an air of mutual trust and happiness that it angered him.

“Who is the lady?” he asked at length; “she seems to have business here.”

“What for no?  The house is her ain.  She is Mistress Sharp, and that is the professor with her.  He is a great gun in the Glasgow University.”

“They are married, then?”

“Ay, they are married.  What are you saying at all?  They were married a month syne, and they are as happy as robins in spring, I’m thinking.  I’ll drink their health, sir, if you’ll gie me the bit o’ siller.”

Gavin gave the silver and turned away dazed and sick at heart.  His business in Scotland was over.  The quiet Lothian country sickened him; he turned his face to London, and very soon went back to New York.  He had lost Jean, and he had lost Jean’s fortune; and there were no words to express his chagrin and disappointment.  His sister felt the first weight of it.  He blamed her entirely.  She had lied to him about Jean’s beauty.  He believed he would have liked the photo but for Mary.  And all for Annie Riley!  He hated Annie Riley!  He was resolved never to marry her, and he let the girl feel his dislike in no equivocal manner.

For a time Annie was tearful and conciliating.  Then she wrote him a touching letter, and asked him to tell her frankly if he had ceased to love her, and was resolved to break their marriage off.  And Gavin did tell her, with almost brutal frankness, that he no longer loved her, and that he had firmly made up his mind not to marry her.  He said something about his heart being in Scotland, but that was only a bit of sentiment that he thought gave a better air to his unfaithfulness.

Annie did not answer his letter, but Messrs. Howe & Hummel did, and Gavin soon found himself the centre of a breach of promise trial, with damages laid at fifty thousand dollars.  All his fine poetical love letters were in the newspapers; he was ashamed to look men and women in the face; he suffered a constant pillory for weeks; through his vanity, his self-consciousness, his egotism he was perpetually wounded.  But pretty Annie Riley was the object of public pity and interest, and she really seemed to enjoy her notoriety.  The verdict was righteously enough in her favor.  The jury gave her ten thousand dollars, and all expenses,