mer in the dark, for I did not know, however
I might guess, what Marget and her mother were thinking. Perhaps my
heart really assured my mind as to Marget, or so I was fain to
conclude. Her mother, however, might take a mother's view, the
far-carrying view which thinks of daughters settled in such a manner as
will continue the old line.

Every man has, deep down in him, the desire to own a little bit of
land, even though most of us only get six feet for a grave. It is
man's form of ancestor-worship, and in woman it finds expression in the
home, and continuous olive branches to fill that home. The man likes
to have his foot securely on a rood of Mother Earth, a patch to call
his very own. The woman supplements that by peopling a house; and is
not this service of the maternal instinct the greater, the finer of the
two?

One placed in circumstances which need strong action, should not think
too much, because by doing that he raises a wall of difficulties around
him. Mental ghosts are no use to anybody, although, to be sure, they
weren't unknown to me. So I welcomed a letter that reached me next
morning from Marget's mother, but I opened it with a dread. It
addressed me as "Dear Captain Gordon," and it read:

"I am troubling you for advice, because there is nobody else whom I can
ask, and because the matter may interest you, both as a relative, far
removed I admit, and as a soldier of the reigning king. You will guess
what it is, and that makes it easier for me to explain.

"It has been made known to us in a round-about, but authoritative way,
that it would give King George and his ministers satisfaction to see
our house and people established again, and that Jock Farquharson, the
laird of Inverey, would be confirmed in the chiefship, if as much were
agreeable to my daughter and myself.

"They don't ask me will I give my daughter in ransom for the house and
possessions of our ancestors, but that is what is meant, and you can
judge how the idea has concerned me. You may also, however, concern
and interest a mother at the same time, and I have hesitated to return
a 'No,' especially as Marget said, about the letter, when I showed it
to her, 'Well, the sons of the house have sacrificed enough for it. It
may now be the turn of the daughter to sacrifice something . . .!"

"That was dutifully said, but what she expects, I'm certain, is that I
shall say the 'No' of my own accord, and I want your advice as to the
m