gift and the
possession of it. When she came back she was changed in a way. 'It's a
great thing to be a gentleman; I think it's more in the end than being
a genius, Jock,' she said, and by this, as well as other speeches of
hers, I am convinced that her mind had turned toward Danvers, and if he
had come to her with any kindness at all, things would have been
settled between them; but he burst in storming, poor fellow, like a
crazy loon, and a fine quarrel they had of it, with this marriage as a
resulting."

"There's one small good comes out of it all, which is that the
paste-covered woman gets out of Arran to-day," Sandy ended. "It's a
thing she had not counted upon, but Danvers wrote that they were off to
the Continent, and it's not respectable for her to stay alone with me,
and she packs for Carlisle to-morrow."

Of the next five months there is little to tell which bears directly
upon my tale, except to make some mention of the "intellectual reform"
of the Duke of Borthwicke, a name he put himself upon his altered
conduct. News we had of him in plenty, and if rumor could be relied
upon, he was a changed man. The first note of his new behavior was
struck by his relieving the poor tenant-bodies on his Killanarchie
estates from their rentals for three years because of the losses from a
cattle blight. And before the sound of this had died away another bit
was added to the tune of his reformation by his coming out strong
against the crown for the repeal of the tax on Scotch whisky. And the
full song of his praises began to be sung in public when he, being one
of the Scotch Sixteen in the English House of Peers, declared for the
inadequacy of representation which Scotland had in the House of
Commons, and moved for an election of fifty-four, after the English
manner[8].

[8] Scotland had but 16 Peers and 48 Representatives in
Parliament at this time.

His letters to Nancy and myself at this time were of a piece with him,
for he spoke with quaint sarcasm of that which he termed his "change of
heart," and of the curious pleasure he obtained from marking his life
out along another line. He wrote with detail as well of a new Paisley
industry which he had started on one of his estates, asking Nancy's
advice concerning a teacher for the lace-work, it being his purpose to
have the young women round Borthwicke Castle turned toward making a
livelihood after this manner. During all of this time his letters came
freq