that in few words the laird had
painted.

And in the morning he found still the old-new Alexander. He saw that
the new had always been in the old, the oak in the acorn.... There was
a great, sane naturalness in the alteration, in the advance.
Strickland caught glimpses of larger orders.

"_I will make thee ruler over many things._"

The day was deep and bright. The laird fell at once into the old
routine. For none at Glenfernie was there restlessness; there was only
ache gone, and a feeling of fulfilling. Mrs. Grizel pattered to and
fro. Alice sang like a lark, gathering pansy seed from her garden.
Phemie and Eppie sang. The men whistled at their work. Davie
discoursed to himself. But Tibbie Ross was wild to get away early and
to the village with the news. By the foot of the hill she began to
meet wayfarers.

"Oh, aye, this is the real weather! Did ye know--"

Alexander did not leave home that day. In their old work-room he
listened to Strickland's account of his stewardship.

"Strickland, I love you!" he said, when it was all given.

He wrote to Jamie; he sat in the garden seat built against the garden
wall and watched Alice as she moved from plant to plant.

"You do not say much," thought Alice, "but I like you--I like you--I
like you!"

In the afternoon Strickland met him coming from the little green
beyond the school-room.

"I have been out through the wall, under the old pine. I seemed to
hold many things in the palm of the hand.... I believe that you know
what it is to make essences."

After bedtime Strickland saw again the light in the keep. But he had
ceased to fear. "Oh All-Being, how rich and stately and various and
surprising you are!" In the morning, outside in the court, he found
Black Alan saddled.

"The laird will be riding to Black Hill," said Tam Dickson.

CHAPTER XXXII

Mr. Archibald Touris put out a wrinkled hand to his wine-glass. "You
have been in warm countries. I envy you! I wish that I could get
warm."

"Black Hill is looking finely. All the young trees--"

"Yes. I took pride in planting.--But what for--what for--what for?" He
shivered. "Glenfernie, please close that window!"

Alexander, coming back, stood above the master of Black Hill. "Will
you tell me, sir, where Ian is now?"

Mr. Touris twitched back a little in his chair. "Don't you know? I
thought perhaps that you did."

"I ceased to follow him two years ago. I dived into the East, and I
have been long wh