d oats, and
prove to even respectable and incredulous Uncle Alick that there was no
fear of their ever sprouting up again. Also, Lord Cairnforth took the
opportunity to introduce his cousin into his own set of Edinburg
friends, to familiarize the young man with the society in which he must
shortly take his place, and to hear from them, what he so warmly
believed himself, that Cardross was fitted to be heir to any property in
all Scotland.

"What a pity," some added, "that he could not be heir to the earldom
also!" "No," said others, "better that 'the wee earl' (as old-fashioned
folk still sometimes called him) should be the last Earl of Cairnforth."

With the exception of those two visits, during a whole twelvemonth the
earl and his adopted son were scarcely parted for a single day. Years
afterward, Cardross loved to relate, first to his mother, and then to
his children, sometimes with laughter, and again with scarcely repressed
tears, may an anecdote of the life they two led together at St. Andrew's
--a real student life, yet filled at times with the gayest amusements.
For the earl loved gayety--actual mirth; sometimes he and Cardross
were as full of jests and pranks as two children, and at other times
they held long conversations upon all manner of grave and earnest
topics, like equal friends. It was the sort of companionship, free and
tender, cheerful and bright, yet with all the influence of the elder
over the younger, which, occurring to a young man of Cardross's age and
temperament, usually determines his character for life.

Thus, day by day, Helen's son developed and matured, becoming more and
more a thorough Cardross, sound to the core, and yet polished outside in
a manner which had not been the lot of any of the earlier generation,
save the minister. Also, he had a certain winning way with him--a
power of suiting himself to every body, and pleasing every body--
which even his mother, who only pleased those she loved or those that
loved her, had never possessed.

"It's his father's way he has, ye ken," Malcolm would say--Malcolm,
who, after a season of passing jealousy, had for years succumbed wholly
to his admiration of "Miss Helen's bairn." "But it's the only bit o'
the Bruces that the lad's gotten in him, thank the Lord!"

Though the earl did not say openly "thank the Lord," still he, too,
recognized with a solemn joy that the qualities he and Helen dreaded had
either not been inherited by Captai