Scotch; but she is very
good. Only don't you think good people are just a little wearisome
sometimes?"

The earl smiled. He was accustomed to, and often rather amused by his
cousin's honest worldliness and outspoken skepticisms--that candid
confession of badness which always inclines a kindly heart to believe
the very best of the penitent.

"Nevertheless, though Miss Cardross may be 'no bonnie,' and too good to
please your taste, I hope you will go often to the Manse in my absence,
and write me word how they are, otherwise I shall hear little--the
minister's letters are too voluminous to be frequent--and Miss
Cardross is not given to much correspondence."

Captain Bruce promised, and again the two young men sat silent,
listening to the eerie howling of the wind. It inclined both of them to
graver talk than was their habit when together.

"I wonder," said the earl, "whether this blast, according to popular
superstition, is come to carry many souls away with it 'on the wings of
the wind!' Where will they fly to the instant they leave the body? How
free and happy they must feel!"

"What an odd fancy! And not a particularly pleasant one," replied the
captain, with a shiver.

"Not unpleasant, to my mind. I like to think of these things. If I
were out of the body, I should, if I could fly back to Cairnforth."

"Pray don't imagine such dreadful things. May you live a hundred
years!"

"Not quite, I hope. A hundred years--of my life! No. the most
loving friend I have would not wish it for me." Then, suddenly, as with
an impulse created by the sad events of the day--the stormy night--
and the disturbed state of his own mental condition, inclining him to
any sort of companionship, "Cousin, I am going to trust you, specially,
in a matter of business which I wish named to the Cardrosses. I should
have done so before they left to-night. May I confide to you the
message?"

"Willingly. What is it about?" and the captain's keen black eyes
assumed an expression which, if the earl had noticed, he might have
repented of his trust. But no, he never would have noticed it. His
upright, honest nature, though capable of great reserve, was utterly
incapable of false pretense, deceit, or self-interested diplomacy. And
what was impossible in himself he never suspected in other people. He
thought his cousin shallow sometimes, but good-natured; a little
worldly, perhaps, but always well-meaning. That Captain Bruce c