nd read a good deal in the
Bible, and it was the only book concerning which he asked no
enlightenment from his master, Julian Wemyss.

Stair heard extracts from the letters from London which Patsy sent to
her father and uncle under the frank of the Earl Raincy, but he had one
or two altogether his own, and these he judged more precious than gold.
They came to him by way of his sister Jean, and the trysting-place in
the alder copse by the side of the Mays Water.

On such occasions, Stair, being in furious haste, took the bundle of
clean clothes Jean had brought him, and strode away over the rough fells
in the direction of the Wild. Half-way, however, he changed his course.
And many a night wanderer on land and many a benighted fisherman bearing
up Loch Ryan-ward on the northward set of the tide, was awed by a
strange light in the Corpse Yard above the Elrich Strand, where the
Blackshore folk bury the drowned who come to them from the sea. Here
among the wooden head-boards (bearing dates only) of the unknown dead,
Stair Garland read his first letter from Patsy in London.

"Stair" (it began without qualitative either formal or
affectionate), "I did not promise to write to you, so I am doing
it. London is very full of gay things which are not so gay as they
look. I would rather see you and Whitefoot (give him a kiss from
me!) than the procession of the Regent to open Parliament.

"The Princess would spoil me were I spoilable. But you know I am
made of the guinea gold that does not need gilding. However, she
does her best. I have a maid to wait on me, but I think I do very
much more for her. Still, she mends the holes that I dance in the
heels of my stockings--all of silk, Stair, and smuggled from
France! For they 'run' things here, just as they do in Galloway--in
Sussex and Cornwall mainly. They have only luggers, however--at
least so one of my partners told me last night. He had seen John
Carter himself down at Prussia Cove! Think of that, Stair! And the
old man had preached him a sermon!

"I have dresses in Valenceens lace over pale-blue silk, and all
sorts of lovely things; don't you wish you could see me? I see
Louis often, but not so often as I used to. They say he is in love
with Mrs. Arlington, a great beauty at the Regent's court. You know
that Louis is now aide-de-camp to the Duke of York, who is
Commander-