he asked the
hospitality of his kinsman.

'He is welcome,' said the Regent, a man of easy good-nature, whose chief
misfortune was, that being of weak nature, he came between a wicked
father and wickeder sons. He was a handsome man, with much of the
stately appearance of King James himself, and the same complexion; but it
was that sort of likeness which was almost provoking, by seeming to
detract from the majesty of the lineaments themselves, as seen in him who
alone knew how to make them a mask for a great soul. His two sons,
Robert and Alexander, laughed as they saw Kennedy's companion, and called
out, 'So that's the brotherhood of learning, is it, Jamie?--forgathering
with any beggar in the street!'

'Yea,' said Kennedy, nothing daunted, 'and finding him much better
mannered than you!'

'Ay!' sighed Murdoch, feebly; 'when I grew up, it was at the Castles of
Perth and Doune that we looked for the best manners. Now--'

'We leave them to the lick-platters that have to live by them,' said
Alexander, rudely.

Kennedy, meanwhile, gave the young scholar in charge to a gray-headed
retainer, who seemed one of the few who had any remains of good-breeding;
and then offered to say Grace--he being the nearest approach to an
ecclesiastic present--as the chaplain was gone to an Easter festivity at
his Abbey. Malcolm thus obtained a seat at the second table, and a
tolerable share of supper; but he could hardly eat, from intense anxiety,
and scarcely knew whether to be glad or sorry that he was out of sight of
Lily.

By and by, a moment's lull of the universal din enabled Malcolm to hear
the Regent saying, 'Verily, there is a look of gentle nurture about the
lad. Look you, James, when the tables are drawn, you shall hold a
disputation with him. It will be sport to hear how you chop logic at
your Universities yonder.'

Malcolm's spirit sank. Such disputations were perfectly ordinary work at
both Oxford and Paris, and, usually, he was quite capable of sustaining
his part in them; but his heart was so full, his mind so anxious, his
condition so dangerous, that he felt as if he could by no means rally
that alertness of argument, and readiness of quotation, that were
requisite even in the merest tyro. However, he made a great effort. He
secretly invoked the Light of Wisdom; tried to think himself back into
the aisles of St. Mary's Church, and to call up the key-notes of some of
the stock arguments; hoping that, if the sel