continually of his affairs, ciphering
figures and holding disputation with the tenantry. Never a word of his
father or his wife, nor of the Master, save only for a day or two, when
his mind dwelled entirely in the past, and he supposed himself a boy
again and upon some innocent child's play with his brother. What made
this the more affecting: it appeared the Master had then run some peril
of his life, for there was a cry--"O! Jamie will be drowned--O, save
Jamie!" which he came over and over with a great deal of passion.

This, I say, was affecting, both to Mrs. Henry and myself; but the
balance of my master's wanderings did him little justice. It seemed he
had set out to justify his brother's calumnies; as though he was bent to
prove himself a man of a dry nature, immersed in money-getting. Had I
been there alone, I would not have troubled my thumb; but all the while,
as I listened, I was estimating the effect on the man's wife, and
telling myself that he fell lower every day. I was the one person on the
surface of the globe that comprehended him, and I was bound there should
be yet another. Whether he was to die there and his virtues perish: or
whether he should save his days and come back to that inheritance of
sorrows, his right memory: I was bound he should be heartily lamented in
the one case, and unaffectedly welcomed in the other, by the person he
loved the most, his wife.

Finding no occasion of free speech, I bethought me at last of a kind of
documentary disclosure; and for some nights, when I was off duty, and
should have been asleep, I gave my time to the preparation of that which
I may call my budget. But this I found to be the easiest portion of my
task, and that which remained--namely, the presentation to my
lady--almost more than I had fortitude to overtake. Several days I went
about with my papers under my arm, spying for some juncture of talk to
serve as introduction. I will not deny but that some offered; only when
they did my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth; and I think I might
have been carrying about my packet till this day, had not a fortunate
accident delivered me from all my hesitations. This was at night, when
I was once more leaving the room, the thing not yet done, and myself in
despair at my own cowardice.

"What do you carry about with you, Mr. Mackellar?" she asked. "These
last days, I see you always coming in and out with the same armful."

I returned upon my steps without a word,