ips moved
in prayer as they ate, it seemed to Carnegie and his daughter like a
sacrament. So the two went from the fellowship of the poor to their
ancient house.

They drove along the avenue between the stately beeches that stood on
either side and reached out their branches, almost but not quite unto
meeting, so that the sun, now in the south, made a train of light down
which the General and Kate came home. At the end of the beeches the
road wheeled to the right, and Kate saw for the first time the
dwelling-place of her people. Tochty Lodge was of the fourth period of
Scottish castellated architecture, and till it fell into disrepair was
a very perfect example of the sixteenth century mansion-house, where
strength of defence could not yet be dispensed with, for the Carnegies
were too near the Highland border to do without thick walls or to risk
habitation on the ground floor. The buildings had first been erected
on the L plan, and then had been made into a quadrangle, so that on the
left was the main part, with a tower at the south-west corner over the
den, and a wing at the south-east coming out to meet the gate. On the
north-east and north were a tower and rooms now in ruins, and along the
west ran a wall some six feet high with a stone walk three feet from
the top, whence you could look down on the burn. A big gateway, whose
doors were of oak studded with nails, with a grated lattice for
observation, gave entrance to the courtyard. In the centre of the yard
there was an ancient oak and a draw well whose water never failed. The
eastern face was bare of ivy, except at the north corner, where stood
the jackdaws' tower; but the rough grey stone was relieved by the
tendrils and red blossoms of the hardy tropaeolum which despises the
rich soil of the south and the softer air, and grows luxuriantly on our
homely northern houses. As they came to the gateway, the General bade
Kate pull up and read the scroll above, which ran in clear-cut letters--

TRY AND THEN
TRVST BETTER GVDE
ASSVRANCE
BOT TRUST NOT
OR YE TRY FOR FEAR
OF REPENTANCE.

"We 've been a slow dour race, Kit, who never gave our heart lightly,
but having given it, never played the traitor. Fortune has not
favoured us, for acre after acre has gone from our hands, but, thank
God, we 've never had dishonour."

"And never will, dad, for we are the last of the race."

Janet Macpherson was waiting in the deep doorway of the tower, and g