quire had actually
forced his way in, and caught the whole family "in a state not fit to be
seen." That was a trifle, but the Squire had presumed to instruct Mr.
Leslie how to manage his property, and Mrs. Hazeldean had actually told
Juliet to hold up her head and tie up her hair, "as if we were her
cottagers!" said Mrs. Leslie, with the pride of a Montfydget.

All these and various other annoyances, though Randal was too sensible
not to perceive their insignificance, still galled and mortified the
listening heir of Rood. They showed, at least, even to the well-meant
officiousness of the Hazeldeans, the small account in which the fallen
family was held. As he sat still on the moss-grown pale, gloomy and
taciturn, his mother standing beside him, with her cap awry, Mr. Leslie
shamblingly sauntered up, and said in a pensive dolorous whine--

"I wish we had a good sum of money, Randal, boy!"

To do Mr. Leslie justice, he seldom gave vent to any wish that savored
of avarice. His mind must be singularly aroused, to wander out of its
normal limits of sluggish, dull content.

So Randal looked at him in surprise, and said, "Do you, sir?--why?"

"The manors of Rood and Dulmansberry, and all the lands therein, which
my great-grandfather sold away, are to be sold again when Squire
Thornhill's eldest son comes of age, to cut off the entail. Sir John
Spratt talks of buying them. I should like to have them back again. 'Tis
a shame to see the Leslie estates hawked about, and bought by Spratts
and people. I wish I had a great--great sum of ready money."

The poor gentleman extended his helpless fingers as he spoke, and fell
into a dejected reverie.

Randal sprang from the paling, a movement which frightened the
contemplative pigs, and set them off squalling and scampering. "When
does young Thornhill come of age?"

"He was nineteen last August. I know it, because the day he was born I
picked up my fossil of the sea-horse, just by Dulmansberry church, when
the joy-bells were ringing! My fossil sea-horse! It will be an
heir-loom, Randal--"

"Two years--nearly two years--yet--ah, ah!" said Randal; and his sister
now appearing to announce that tea was ready, he threw his arm around
her neck and kissed, her. Juliet had arranged her hair and trimmed up
her dress. She looked very pretty, and she had now the air of a
gentlewoman--something of Randal's own refinement in her slender
proportions and well-shaped head.

"Be patient, patie