Glendinning's place," he said; "but the old hero's long dead and gone now; and—the more's the pity—so is the young General, his son, dead and gone; but then there is a still younger grandson General left; that family always keep the title and the name a-going; yes, even to the surname,—Pierre. Pierre Glendinning was the white-haired old General's name, who fought in the old French and Indian wars; and Pierre Glendinning is his young great-grandson's name." Thou mayst well look at me so, my brother;—yes, he meant thee, thee, my brother.'
'But the guitar—the guitar!' cried Pierre—'how came the guitar openly at Saddle Meadows, and how came it to be bartered away by servants? Tell me that, Isabel!'
'Do not put such impetuous questions to me, Pierre; else thou mayst recall the old—maybe it is the evil spell upon me. I cannot precisely and knowingly answer thee. I could surmise; but what are surmises worth? Oh, Pierre, better, a million times, and far sweeter are mysteries than surmises: though the mystery be unfathomable, it is still the unfathomableness of fulness; but the surmise, that is but shallow and unmeaning emptiness.'
'But this is the most inexplicable point of all. Tell me, Isabel; surely thou must have thought something about this thing.'
'Much, Pierre, very much; but only about the mystery of it—nothing more. Could I, I would not now be fully told, how the guitar came to be at Saddle Meadows, and came to be bartered away by the servants of Saddle Meadows. Enough, that it found me out, and came to me, and spoke and sung to me, and soothed me, and has been everything to me.'
She paused a moment; while vaguely to his secret self Pierre revolved these strange revealings; but now he was all attention again as Isabel resumed.
