akes no change. And you--I do not think you
were out yourself, sir--I have no clear mind of your face, which is one
not probable to be forgotten."

"In the year you refer to, Mr. Macgregor, I was getting skelped in the
parish school," said I.

"So young!" cries he. "Ah, then, you will never be able to think what
this meeting is to me. In the hour of my adversity, and here in the house
of my enemy, to meet in with the blood of an old brother-in-arms--it
heartens me, Mr. Balfour, like the skirling of the Highland pipes! Sir,
this is a sad look-back that many of us have to make: some with falling
tears. I have lived in my own country like a king; my sword, my
mountains, and the faith of my friends and kinsmen sufficed for me. Now I
lie in a stinking dungeon; and do you know, Mr. Balfour," he went on,
taking my arm and beginning to lead me about, "do you know, sir, that I
lack mere necessaries? The malice of my foes has quite sequestered my
resources. I lie, as you know, sir, on a trumped-up charge, of which I am
as innocent as yourself. They dare not bring me to my trial, and in the
meanwhile I am held naked in my prison. I could have wished it was your
cousin I had met, or his brother Baith himself. Either would, I know,
have been rejoiced to help me; while a comparative stranger like
yourself--"

I would be ashamed to set down all he poured out to me in this beggarly
vein, or the very short and grudging answers that I made to him. There
were times when I was tempted to stop his mouth with some small change;
but whether it was from shame or pride--whether it was for my own sake
or Catriona's--whether it was because I thought him no fit father for
his daughter, or because I resented that grossness of immediate falsity
that clung about the man himself--the thing was clean beyond me. And I
was still being wheedled and preached to, and still being marched to and
fro, three steps and a turn, in that small chamber, and had already, by
some very short replies, highly incensed, although not finally
discouraged, my beggar, when Prestongrange appeared in the doorway and
bade me eagerly into his big chamber.

"I have a moment's engagement," said he; "and that you may not sit
empty-handed I am going to present you to my three braw daughters, of
whom perhaps you may have heard, for I think they are more famous than
papa.--This way."

He led me into another long room above, where a dry old lady sat at a
frame of embroidery, and t