it cap in hand.
Drumtochty restrained itself with an effort in foreign parts--for
Kildrummie was exceptionally strong at the Junction--but it waited at
the terminus till the outer world had gone up the road. Then their own
folk took the two in hand, and these were the guard of honour who
escorted the Minister and the General to where our Kate was waiting
with the dog-cart, each carrying some morsel of luggage--Drumsheugh,
Burnbrae, Hillocks, Netherton, Jamie Soutar, and Archie Moncur. Kate
drove gloriously through Kildrummie as if they had come from a triumph,
and let it be said to the credit of that despised town, that, the news
having come, every hat was lifted, but that which lasted till they got
home, and till long afterwards, was the handshake of the Drumtochty men.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MARGET HOWE'S CONFESSIONAL.

When the General and Kate were loitering over breakfast the morning
after the ovation, they heard the sound of a horse's feet on the
gravel, and Donald came in with more his usual importance.

"It iss a messenger from Muirtown Castle, and he iss waiting to know
whether there will be any answer." And Donald put one letter before
the father and another before the daughter, both showing the Hay crest.
Kate's face whitened as she recognised the handwriting on her envelope,
and she went over to the window seat of a turret in the corner of the
room, while the General opened his letter, standing on a tiger-skin,
with his back to the fireplace in the great hall. This is what he read:

MY DEAR CARNEGIE,--When men have fought together in the trenches before
Sebastopol, as their ancestors have ridden side by side with Prince
Charlie, I hope you will agree with me they need not stand on ceremony.
If I seem guilty of any indiscretion in what I am going to say, then
you will pardon me for "Auld Lang Syne."

You have one daughter and I have one son, and so I do not need to tell
you that he is very dear to me, and that I have often thought of his
marriage, on which not only his own happiness so much depends, but also
the future of our house and name. Very likely you have had some such
thoughts about Kate, with this difference, that you would rather keep
so winsome a girl with you, while I want even so good a son as Hay to
be married whenever he can meet with one whom he loves, and who is
worthy of him.

Hay never gave me an hour's anxiety, and has no entanglements of any
kind, but on the subject of marr