s till he had laid it
down again. Books were Mr Cupples's gold and jewels and furniture and
fine clothes, in fact his whole _gloria mundi_.

But the opening day was at hand, after which Alec would have less time.
Still he resolved, as some small return for the kindness of Mr Cupples,
that he would continue to give him what help he could; for he had
discovered that the pro-librarian lived in continual dread lest the
office should be permanently filled before he had completed his labour
of re-organization.

During the few days passed in the library, he called once upon Mr
Fraser, and met with a warm reception from him. Kate gave him a kind
one as before; but he had neither the satisfaction nor the pain of
being alone with her.

At the opening, appeared amongst the rest Patrick Beauchamp--claiming
now the name and dignity of The Mac Chattachan, for his grandfather was
dead, and he was heir to the property. He was, if possible, more
haughty than before; but students are not, as a class, ready to respond
to claims of superiority upon such grounds as he possessed, and, except
by a few who were naturally obsequious, he continued to be called
Beauchamp, and by that name I shall call him too.

It soon came out that when lecture-hours were over, he put off his
lowland dress, and went everywhere in Highland costume. Indeed on the
first day Alec met him in the gloaming thus attired; and the flash of
his cairngorms as he passed seemed to scorch his eyes, for he thought
of the two on the pier, and the miserable hour that followed. Beauchamp
no longer attended the anatomical lectures; and when Alec observed his
absence, he recalled the fact that Kate could never bear even a distant
reference to that branch of study. Whether he would have gone in for it
with any heartiness himself this session, had it not been for the good
influence of Mr Cupples, is more than doubtful. But he gave him
constant aid, consisting in part of a liberal use of any kind of mental
goad that came to his hand--sometimes praise, sometimes rebuke,
sometimes humorous execration.

Fortunately for the designs of Beauchamp, Mr Fraser had been visiting
in his mother's neighbourhood; and nothing was easier for one who, like
most Celts, possessed more than the ordinary power of ingratiating,
than to make himself agreeable to the old man. When he took his leave
to return to the college, Mr Fraser declared himself sorry that he had
made no better acquaintance with hi