cal, worldly-minded nor selfish,
in her silent hours her mind generally wandered to the practical
concerns of other people, and especially of those she loved.

"'Try' ought to be the motto of the Cardross arms--of yours certainly,"
said Lord Cairnforth, smiling. "I should like to assume it on mine,
instead of my own 'Virtute et fide,' which is of little use to me.
How can I--I--be brave or faithful?"

"You can be both--and you will," said Helen, softly. Years from that
day she remembered what she had said, and how true it was.

A little while afterward, while the minister still remained buried in
his beloved books, Lord Carinforth recurred again to Dougal Mac Dougal.

"The old fellow was right. If I am ever to have 'ony wits ava,' I ought
to have them by this time. I am nearly twenty-one. Any other young
man would have been a man long ago. And I will be a man--why should
I not? True manliness is not solely outside. I dare say you could find
many a fool and a coward six feet high."

"Yes," answered Helen, all she could find to say.

"And if I have nothing else, I have brains--quite as good brains, I
think, as my neighbors. They can not say of me now that I'm 'no a'
there.' Nay, Helen, don't look so fierce; they meant me no ill; it was
but natural. Yes, God has left me something to be thankful for."

The earl lifted his head--the only part of his frame which he could
move freely, and his eyes flashed under his broad brows. Thoroughly
manly brows they were, wherein any acute observer might trace that clear
sound sense, active energy, and indomitable perseverance which make the
real man, and lacking which the "brawest" young follow alive is a mere
body--and animal wanting the soul.

"I wonder how I should set about managing my property. The duty will
not be as easy for me as for most people, you know," added he, sadly;
"still, if I had a secretary--a thorough man of business, to teach me
all about business, and to be constantly at my side, perhaps I might be
able to accomplish it. And I might drive about the country--driving
is less painful to me now--and get acquainted with my people; see
what they wanted, and how I could best help them. They would get used
to me, too. I might turn out to be a very respectable laird, and become
interested in the improvement of my estates."

"There is great opportunity for that, I know," replied Helen. And then
she told him of a conversation she had heard between