in it who were not glad at the accession of Malcolm, and with
every one of those few the cause lay in himself. In the shops, among the
nets, in the curing-sheds, in the houses and cottages, nothing else was
talked about; and stories and reminiscences innumerable were brought
out, chiefly to prove that Malcolm had always appeared likely to turn
out somebody, the narrator not seldom modestly hinting at a glimmering
foresight on his own part of what had now been at length revealed to the
world. His friends were jubilant as revellers. For Meg Partan, she ran
from house to house like a maniac, laughing and crying. It was as if the
whole Seaton had suddenly been translated. The men came crowding about
Duncan, congratulating him and asking him a hundred questions. But the
old man maintained a reticence whose dignity was strangely mingled of
pomp and grace; sat calm and stately, as feeling the glow of reflected
honor; would not, by word, gesture, tone or exclamation, confess to any
surprise; behaved as if he had known it all the time; made no pretence,
however, of having known it--merely treated the fact as not a whit more
than might have been looked for by one who had known Malcolm as he had
known him.

Davy, in his yacht uniform, was the next morning appointed the marquis's
personal attendant, and a running time he had of it for a fortnight.
Almost the first thing that fell to him in his office was to show into
the room on the ground floor where his master sat--the same in which for
ages the lords of Lossie had been wont to transact what little business
any of them ever attended to--a pale, feeble man, bowed by the weight of
a huge brass-clasped volume under each arm.

His lordship rose and met him with outstretched hand. "I am glad indeed
to see you, Mr. Crathie," he said, "but I fear you are out too soon."

"I am quite well since yesterday, my lord," returned the factor, his
face shining with pleasure. "Your lordship's accession has made a young
man of me again. Here I am to render account of my stewardship."

"I want none, Mr. Crathie--nothing, that is, beyond a summary statement
of how things stand with me."

"I should like to satisfy your lordship that I have dealt
honestly"--here the factor paused for a moment, then with an effort
added--"by _you_, my lord."

"One word," said Malcolm--"the last of the sort, I believe, that will
ever pass between us. Thank God we had made it up before yesterday! If
you have ever b