just the thing," he cried, turning round and throwing his arms
furiously about "Could he not have charged the clan generally, and let
who would put the cap on? If yon's the policy of Courts, heaven help
princes!"

"And yet you were very humble when you entered," I protested.

"Was I that?" he retorted. "That's easy to account for. Did you ever
feel like arguing with a gentleman when you had on your second-best
clothes and no ruffle? The man was in his bed, and his position as he
cocked up there on his knees was not the most dignified I have seen; but
even then he had the best of it, for I felt like a beggar before him in
my shabby duds. Oh, he had the best of us all there! You saw Gordon had
the sense to put on a new surtout and clean linen and a freshly dressed
peruke before he saw him; I think he would scarcely have been so bold
before Argile if he had his breek-bands a finger-length below his belt,
and his wig on the nape of his neck as we saw him in Glencoe."

"Anyhow," said I, "you have severed from his lordship; are you really
going abroad?"

He paused a second in thought, smiled a little, and then laughed as if
he had seen something humorous.

"Man," said he, "didn't I do the dirk trick with a fine touch of
nobility? Maybe you thought it was done on the impulse and without any
calculation. The truth was, I played the whole thing over in my mind
while he was in the preliminaries of his discourse. I saw he was working
up to an attack, and I knew I could surprise him. But I must confess
I said more than I intended. When I spoke of the big wars and Hebron's
troopers--well, Argile's a very nice shire to be living in."

"What, was it all play-acting then?"

He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"You must be a singularly simple man, Elrigmore," he said, "to ask that
of any one. Are we not play-acting half our lives once we get a little
beyond the stage of the ploughman and the herd? Half our tears and half
our laughter and the great bulk of our virtues are like your way of
cocking your bonnet over your right ear; it does not come by nature, and
it is done to pleasure the world in general Play-acting! I'll tell you
this, Colin, I could scarcely say myself when a passion of mine is
real or fancied now. But I can tell you this too; if I began in play to
revile the Marquis, I ended in earnest I'm afraid it's all bye with me
yonder. No more mine-managing for me; I struck too close on the marrow
for him to for