ttish
gentleman could not bear to be placed in such a position!" and he sat
down and wrote at once to say that he had been seriously unwell, and
must return to town on a certain day.

"Squeamish young donkey!" said the hard-griping old man of the world,
when he received his son's letter. "Bad as his weak, sensitive mother.
Know better some day. If I had been so particular, Dunroe would not be
mine to leave."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

A SAD PARTING.

"So you're off to-morrow, Max?" said Kenneth sadly.

"Yes. How beautiful everything looks, now I am going away!"

"Yes," said Kenneth, with a quaint glance first at the distant islands
rising all lilac and gold from the sapphire sea; "how beautiful
everything looks, now I am going away!"

"Oh, Ken!"

"And oh, Max! There, don't turn like that, old chap. It's the fortune
of war, as they say. Good luck to you. I feel now as if I'd rather you
had Dunroe than anybody else. I say, let's call Scoody, and get out the
boat, and have one last sail together."

"Yes, do," cried Max eagerly.

"All right. I'll go and find Scoody. Get the lines. We may as well
try for some mackerel as we go."

Kenneth ran out of the room, and Max went to the little study, got the
lines, and then was about to follow his friend, when he recalled the
fact that he had not been to see old Donald since he had been better.

So, going out into the courtyard, he made for the old man's quarters,
knocked, was told to come in, and entered, to find the piper propped up
in an easy-chair, and Long Shon and Tavish keeping him company.

The old man glared at him strangely, and grasped at something he had in
his lap which emitted a feeble squeak, and Max saw that they were his
pipes, about which his thin fingers played.

"I'm going away to-morrow, Donald," said Max, "and wanted to know how
you were."

The old man neither moved nor spoke, but his deeply-sunken eyes seemed
to burn, as he glared fiercely, and his breathing sounded deep and
hoarse.

"I hope you are better?"

There was no reply.

"He is better, is he not, Tavish?"

The great forester gazed straight before him at the wall, but made no
reply.

"What is the matter, Shon?" said Max uneasily.

Long Shon took a pinch of snuff, and gazed at the floor.

"Look here!" cried Max earnestly; "I wanted to thank you all for your
kindness to me since I have been here, and I may not have another
chance. Donald, Long Shon, Tavish--just