and advisable.

"And now, papa," added she, for her watchful eye detected Lord
Cairnforth's pale face and wearied air, "let us say good-night--and
good-by."

Long after, they remembered, all of them, what an exceedingly quiet and
ordinary good-by it was, none having the slightest feeling that it was
more than a temporary parting. The whole thing had been so sudden, and
the day's events appeared quite shadowy, and as if every body would wake
up to-morrow morning to find them nothing but a dream.

Besides, there was a little hurrying and confusion consequent on the
earl's insisting on sending the Cardrosses home, for the dull, calm day
had changed into the wildest of nights--one of those sudden
equinoctial storms, that in an hour or two alter the whole aspect of
things this region.

"You must take the carriage, Helen--you and your father; it is the
last thing I can do for you--and I would do every thing in the world
for you if I could; but I shall, one day. Good-by. Take care of
yourself, my dear."

These were the earl's farewell words to her. She was so accustomed to
his goodness and kindness that she never thought much about them till
long afterward, when kindness was gone, and goodness seemed the merest
delusion and dream.

When his friends had departed, Lord Cairnforth sat silent and
melancholy. His cousin good-naturedly tried to rouse him into the usual
contest at chess with which they had begun to while away the long winter
evenings, and which just suited Lord Cairnforth's acute, accurate, and
introspective brain, accustomed to plan and to order, so that he
delighted in the game, and was soon as good a player as his teacher.
But now his mind was disturbed and restless; he sat by the fireside,
listening to the fierce wind that went howling round and round the
Castle, as the wind can howl along the sometimes placid shores of Loch
Beg.

"I hope they have reached the Manse in safety. Let me know, Malcolm,
when the carriage returns. I will go to bed then. I wish they would
have remained here; but the minister never will stay; he dislikes
sleeping a single night from under his own roof. Is he not a good man,
cousin--one of a thousand?"

"I have not the slightest doubt of it."

"And his daughter--have you in any way modified your opinion of her,
which at first was not very favorable?"

"Not as to her beauty, certainly," was the careless reply. "She's 'no
bonnie,' as you say in these parts--terribly