warning was an
odd occurrence and for some reason, perhaps in remembrance of my recent
assertion that I had no heart to leave Stair, there fell a funny
performance between us. He handed me my cap and coat, determined to
catch my eye, and I, having no desire to see the reproach which his
glance contained, was equally set to avoid it; so that I received my
cap with my eyes on my boots, my gloves with an averted head, and my
riding-stick looking out of the doorway, and mounted my horse with no
small resentment in my breast at this surveillance from a servant which
would never be borne in any spot outside of Scotland.

"I'm thinking," said I to Sandy as we rode toward the town gate, "I'm
thinking of discharging Huey when I come back."

"That will make the fifty-third time," said Sandy, with a grin, as he
started his horse off at a gallop.

After the visits with Sandy, I kept an engagement with Hugh Pitcairn at
the Star and Garter, just around the corner from the Tron Church, at
four o'clock of the same day. It was a few minutes past the hour as I
neared the place, to find him standing by the doorway, his back to the
passers by, a French cap pulled low over his eyes, reading from a
ponderous book which he was balancing with some difficulty against the
door-rail.

"I hope I've not kept ye waiting!" said I.

"Ye have kept me waiting," he answered, but with no resentment.

"I've been seeing some men about a cruise, and it took more time than I
thought," I explained by way of apology.

"You're off on a cruise?" he asked, as we seated ourselves at one of
the tables.

I nodded.

"With the Carmichael fellow, I suppose?" he asked.

"I am going with Mr. Carmichael," said I.

"Well, it's just _no_ thing for you to be doing at all," he
returned; "you should stay at home and look after your affairs. The
Carlyles have broken the entail, and you may be able to buy the land on
the other side of Burnwater that you've been wanting so long."

"And why can't you attend to the matter?" I cried. "Ye handle all my
business, and do it far better than I ever could, beside, I can leave
procuration----"

He smiled at this in an exasperatingly superior way as though I had
used the word loosely, and went on: "The estate itself is to be looked
to," and here he seemed to have learned his lesson out of Huey
MacGrath's book.

"As for the house," I broke in, "it's taken better care of in my
absence than when I am in it; and it's money in