aking marked contrast with his raven notes. Nor was this
all; for, when the Psalm was finished, the minister said,

"My friends, when it hath pleased the Lord that we should meet together,
we should commune one with another, to the perfecting of ourselves for
that greater assemblage to which I hope we are all bound." And then,
without further preface, he proceeded to exhort them to well-doing in
all the duties of life--as masters and mistresses, as servants, as
parents, as children, as brothers, as fellow-Christians; while at the
end of each rambling and emphatic passage there came in a verse from
Ecclesiastes: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,
and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

Alas! there was no conclusion to this matter. The little, violent-faced
minister warmed to his work, insomuch that several times he used a
Gaelic phrase the better to impress those patient listeners at the door,
while he paid less and less attention to the congregation in the room.
Indeed, the hopeless resignation that had at first settled down on some
of their faces had given place to a most obvious resentment; but what
did that matter to Mr. MacNachten, who was not looking their way? Again
and again Sir Hugh Cunyngham forlornly pulled out his watch, but the
hint was not taken. Lord Fareborough was beside himself with unrest; he
drummed his fingers on the table-cloth; he crossed one leg, and then the
other; while more than once he made a noise between his tongue and his
teeth, which fortunately could not be heard far amid the rolling periods
of the sermon. Captain Waveney, who was master of the ceremonies in all
that concerned the shooting--even as he was Sir Hugh's right-hand man
in the matter of cattle-breeding at the Braes--on several occasions,
when a momentary pause occurred, jumped to his feet as if on the
assumption that the discourse was finished; but this ruse was quite
ineffectual, for the preacher took no notice of him. And meanwhile the
huge figure of Roderick Munro could be seen marching up and down outside
the windows, while a pair of wrathful eyes glared in from time to time;
and Lady Adela, noticing these baleful glances, began to hope that the
irate head keeper would not secretly instruct a gillie to go and throw
the minister into the river as he was crossing the ford on his way home.

"May God forgive the scoundrel!" cried Lord Fareborough, when, the long
sermon at length