e young earl was capable of
receiving, he had not the least idea; but he resolved that, in any case,
he would do his duty, and neither man nor minister could be expected to
do more.

In pursuance of this resolution, he roused himself that sunny June
morning, when he would far rather have sat over his study-fire and let
the world go on without him--as he felt it would, easily enough--
and walked down to the Castle, where, for the first time these ten
years, windows were opened and doors unbarred, and the sweet light and
warm air of day let in upon those long-shut rooms, which seemed, in
their dumb, inanimate way, glad to be happy again--glad to be made of
use once more. Even the portraits of the late earl and countess--he
in his Highland dress, and she in her white satin and pearls--both so
young and bright, as they looked on the day they were married, seemed to
gaze back at each other from either side the long dining-room, as if to
say, rejoicing, "Our son is coming home."

"Have you seen the earl?" said Mr. Cardross to one of the new servants
who attended him round the rooms, listening respectfully to all the
remarks and suggestions as to furniture and the like which Mr. Menteith
had requested him to make. The minister was always specially popular
with servants and inferiors of every sort, for he possessed, in a
remarkable degree, that best key to their hearts, the gentle dignity
which never needs to assert a superiority that is at once felt and
acknowledged.

"The earl, sir? Na, na"--with a mysterious shake of the head--
"naebody sees the earl. Some say--but I hae nae cause to think it
mysel'--that he's no a' there."

The minister was sufficiently familiar with that queer, but very
expressive Scotch phrase, "not all there," to pursue no farther
inquiries. But he sighed, and wished he had delayed a little before
undertaking the tutorship. However, the matter was settled now, and Mr.
Cardross was not the man ever to draw back from an agreement or shrink
from a promise.

"Whatever the poor child is--even if an idiot," thought he, "I will
do my best for him, for his father's and mother's sake."

And he paused several minutes before those bright and smiling portraits,
pondering on the mysterious dealings of the great Ruler of the universe
--how some are taken and some are left: those removed who seem most
happy and most needed; those left behind whom it would have appeared, in
our dim and short-sighted judgme