n mad gambols
through its long passages and rooms, so empty from the first that not
even a ghost had any reason for going there--a place almost without a
history--dreary emblem of so many empty souls that have hidden their
talent in a napkin, and have nothing to return for it when the Master
calls them. Having looked this one in the face, he felt stronger to meet
those other places before which his heart quailed yet more. He knew that
Miss St. John had left soon after Ericson's death: whether he was
sorry or glad that he should not see her he could not tell. He thought
Rothieden would look like Pompeii, a city buried and disinterred; but
when the coach drove into the long straggling street, he found the
old love revive, and although the blood rushed back to his heart when
Captain Forsyth's house came in view, he did not turn away, but made his
eyes, and through them his heart, familiar with its desolation. He got
down at the corner, and leaving Shargar to go on to The Boar's Head and
look after the luggage, walked into his grandmother's house and straight
into her little parlour. She rose with her old stateliness when she saw
a stranger enter the room, and stood waiting his address.

'Weel, grannie,' said Robert, and took her in his arms.

'The Lord's name be praised!' faltered she. 'He's ower guid to the likes
o' me.'

And she lifted up her voice and wept.

She had been informed of his coming, but she had not expected him till
the evening; he was much altered, and old age is slow.

He had hardly placed her in her chair, when Betty came in. If she had
shown him respect before, it was reverence now.

'Eh, sir!' she said, 'I didna ken it was you, or I wadna hae come into
the room ohn chappit at the door. I'll awa' back to my kitchie.'

So saying, she turned to leave the room.

'Hoots! Betty,' cried Robert, 'dinna be a gowk. Gie 's a grip o yer
han'.'

Betty stood staring and irresolute, overcome at sight of the manly bulk
before her.

'Gin ye dinna behave yersel', Betty, I'll jist awa' ower to Muckledrum,
an' hae a caw (drive) throu the sessions-buik.'

Betty laughed for the first time at the awful threat, and the ice once
broken, things returned to somewhat of their old footing.

I must not linger on these days. The next morning Robert paid a visit
to Bodyfauld, and found that time had there flowed so gently that it had
left but few wrinkles and fewer gray hairs. The fields, too, had little
change to show;