Auld Hoose o' Galbraith carried into
his study, and the lawyer found both employment and interest for
weeks in deciphering and arranging them. Amongst many others
concerning the property, its tenures, and boundaries, appeared some
papers which, associated and compared, threw considerable doubt on
the way in which portions of it had changed hands, and passed from
those of Gibbie's ancestors into those of Ginevra's--who were
lawyers as well as Galbraiths; and the laird was keen of scent as
any nose-hound after dishonesty in other people. In the course of a
fortnight he found himself so much at home in his old quarters, and
so much interested in those papers and his books, that when Sir
Gilbert informed him Ginevra and he were going back to the city, he
pronounced it decidedly the better plan, seeing he was there himself
to look after affairs.

For the rest of the winter, therefore, Mr. Galbraith played the
grand seigneur as before among the tenants of Glashruach.

CHAPTER LXII.

THE BURN.

The moment they were settled in the Auld Hoose, Gibbie resumed the
habits of the former winter, which Mistress Croale's failure had
interrupted. And what a change it was to Ginevra--from imprisonment
to ministration! She found difficulties at first, as may readily be
believed. But presently came help. As soon as Mistress Croale
heard of their return, she went immediately to Lady Galbraith, one
morning while Sir Gibbie was at college, literally knelt at her
feet, and with tears told her the whole tale, beseeching her
intercession with Sir Gibbie.

"I want naething," she insisted, "but his fawvour, an' the licht o'
his bonnie coontenance."

The end of course was that she was gladly received again into the
house, where once more she attended to all the principal at least of
her former duties. Before she died, there was a great change and
growth in her: she was none of those before whom pearls must not be
cast.

Every winter, for many years, Sir Gilbert and Lady Galbraith
occupied the Auld Hoose; which by degrees came at length to be known
as the refuge of all that were in honest distress, the salvation of
all in themselves such as could be helped, and a covert for the
night to all the houseless, of whatever sort, except those drunk at
the time. Caution had to be exercised, and judgment used; the
caution was tender and the judgment stern. The next year they built
a house in a sheltered spot on Glashgar, and thith