strange and touching a sight grew at last familiar to the whole town.

Of course, very soon all the circumstances of the case came out,
probably with many imaginary additions, though the latter never reached
the ears of the two concerned. Still, the tale was romantic and
pathetic enough to make the earl and his young heir objects of marked
interest, and welcome guests in the friendly hospitalities of the place,
which hospitalities were gladly requited, for Lord Cairnforth still
keenly enjoyed society, and Cardross was at an age when all pleasure is
attractive.

People said sometimes, What a lucky fellow was Mr. Bruce-Montgomerie!
But they also said--as no one could help seeing and saying--that
very few fathers were blessed with a son half so attentive and devoted
as this young man was to the Earl of Cairnforth.

And meantime Helen Bruce lived quietly at the Manse, devoting herself to
the care of her father, who still lingered on, feeble in body, though
retaining most of his faculties, as though death were unwilling to end a
life which had so much of peace and enjoyment of it to the very last.
When the session was over, Cardross went home to see his mother and
grandfather, and on his return Lord Cairnforth listened eagerly to all
the accounts of Cairnforth, and especially of all that Mrs. Bruce was
doing there; she, as the person most closely acquainted with the earl's
affairs, having been constituted regent in his absence.

"She's a wonderful woman--my mother," said Cardross, with great
admiration. "She has the sense of a man, and the tact of a woman. She
is doing every thing about the estate almost as cleverly as you would do
it yourself."

"Is she? It is good practice for her," said the earl. "She will need
it soon."

Cardross looked at him. He had never till then noticed, what other
people began to notice, how exceedingly old the earl now looked, his
small, delicate features withering up almost like those of an elderly
man, though he was not much past forty.

"You don't, mean--oh no, not that! You must not be thinking of that.
My mother's rule at Cairnforth is a long way off yet." And--big
fellow as he was--the lad's eyes filled with tears.

After that day he refused all holiday excursions in which Lord
Cairnforth could not accompany him. It was only by great persuasion
that he agreed to go for a week to Edinburg, to revisit his old haunts
there, to look on the ugly fields where he had sown his wil