soldier lad I ken o', should be her
son. It is to a man's own flesh and blood, that his siller (money)
should go by rights. But yet a man can do what he likes with what he
has won for himsel'--"

All this or something like it, Mr Rainy had said to himself a good many
times of late, and one day he said it to Doctor Fleming, with whom,
since they both had so much to do with Brownrig, he had fallen into a
sort of intimacy.

"Yes, she is a sensible woman, and may make a good use of it. But it is
to a man's ain flesh and blood that his gear should go. I have been
taking some trouble in the looking up of a nephew of his, to whom he has
left five hundred pounds, and I doubt the lad will not be well pleased,
that all the rest should go as it's going."

The doctor had not much to say about the matter. But he answered:

"As to Mistress Allison's being ready to take up the guiding of
Brownrig's fine house when he is done with it, I cannot make myself
believe it beforehand. She has no such thought as that, or I am greatly
mistaken. By all means, do you what may be done to find this nephew of
her husband's."

"Is it that you are thinking she will refuse to go with Brownrig to
Blackhills?"

"I cannot say. I am to speak to her to-morrow. If he is to go, it must
be soon."

"She'll go," said Mr Rainy.

"Yes, I think she may go," said the doctor; but though they agreed, or
seemed to agree, their thoughts about the matter were as different as
could well be.

The next day Doctor Fleming stood long by the bed, looking on the face
of the sleeper. It had changed greatly since the sick man lay down
there. He had grown thin and pale, and all traces of the
self-indulgence which had so injured him, had passed away. He looked
haggard and wan--the face was the face of an old man. But even so, it
was a better face, and pleasanter to look on, than it had ever been in
his time of health.

"A spoiled life!" the doctor was saying to himself. "With a face and a
head like that, he ought to have been a wiser and better man. I need
not disturb him to-day," said he to Allison, as he turned to go.

He beckoned to her when he reached the door.

"Mistress Allison, answer truly the question I am going to put to you.
Will it be more than you are able to bear, to go with him to his home,
and wait there for the end?"

"Surely, I am able. I never meant to go till lately. But I could never
forsake him now. Oh! yes, I will be ready