ans we
have come to you, beggar-folk, and have not behaved to you very well,
and we are ashamed of our ingratitude and ill-behaviour. Now we are
wanting to go away and be forgotten; and my father will have guided his
gear so ill, that we cannot even do that unless you will give us some
more alms. For that is what we are, at all events, beggar-folk and
sorners."

"By your leave, Miss Drummond," said I, "I must speak to your father by
myself."

She went into her own room and shut the door, without a word or a look.

"You must excuse her, Mr. Balfour," says James More. "She has no
delicacy."

"I am not here to discuss that with you," said I, "but to be quit of
you. And to that end I must talk of your position. Now, Mr. Drummond, I
have kept the run of your affairs more closely than you bargained for. I
know you had money of your own when you were borrowing mine. I know you
have had more since you were here in Leyden, though you concealed it
even from your daughter."

"I bid you beware. I will stand no more baiting," he broke out. "I am
sick of her and you. What kind of a damned trade is this to be a parent!
I have had expressions used to me----" There he broke off. "Sir, this is
the heart of a soldier and a parent," he went on again, laying his hand
on his bosom, "outraged in both characters--and I bid you beware."

"If you would have let me finish," says I, "you would have found I spoke
for your advantage."

"My dear friend," he cried, "I know I might have relied upon the
generosity of your character."

"Man! will you let me speak?" said I. "The fact is that I cannot win to
find out if you are rich or poor. But it is my idea that your means, as
they are mysterious in their source, so they are something insufficient
in amount; and I do not choose your daughter to be lacking. If I durst
speak to herself, you may be certain I would never dream of trusting it
to you; because I know you like the back of my hand, and all your
blustering talk is that much wind to me. However, I believe in your way
you do still care something for your daughter after all; and I must just
be doing with that ground of confidence, such as it is."

Whereupon I arranged with him that he was to communicate with me, as to
his whereabouts and Catriona's welfare, in consideration of which I was
to serve him a small stipend.

He heard the business out with a great deal of eagerness; and when it
was done, "My dear fellow, my dear son," he cried