ood. They were laughing, and feasting, and pledging
each other in glasses of wine, and, as he looked at them, he wondered
how he had ever allowed the sleek, cunning-looking steward to become
Lord of Linne in his father's place.

With something of his old pride he knocked at the door, and demanded
haughtily to speak with the master of the castle. He was taken straight
to the dining-hall, and when John o' the Scales saw him standing in his
rags he broke into a rude laugh.

"Well, Spendthrift," he cried, "and what may thine errand be?"

The heir wondered if this man, who, in the old days had flattered and
fawned upon him, had any pity left, and he determined to try him.

"Good John o' the Scales," he said, "I have come hither to crave thy
help. I pray thee to lend me forty pence."

It was not a large sum. John o' the Scales had often had twice as much
from him, but the churlish fellow started up in a rage.

"Begone, thou thriftless loon," he cried; "thou needst not come hither
to beg. I swear that not one penny wilt thou get from me. I know too
well how thou squandered thy father's gold."

Then the heir turned to John o' the Scales' wife Joan. She was a woman;
perhaps she would be more merciful.

"Sweet madam," he said, "for the sake of blessed charity, bestow some
alms on a poor wayfarer."

But Joan o' the Scales was a hard woman, and she had never loved her
master's son, so she answered rudely, "Nay, by my troth, but thou shalt
get no alms from me. Thou art little better than a vagabond; if we had a
law to punish such, right gladly would I see thee get thy deserts."

Now one of the guests who sat at the board with this rich and prosperous
couple was a knight called Sir Ned Agnew. He was not rich, but he was a
gentleman, and he had been a friend of the old lord, and had known the
Heir when he was a boy, and now, when he saw him standing, ragged and
hungry, in the hall that had once been his own, he could not bear that
he should be driven away with hard and cruel words. Besides, he felt
very indignant with John o' the Scales, for he knew that he had bought
the land far too cheaply. He had not much money to lend, but he could
always spare a little.

"Come back, come back," he cried hastily, as he saw the Heir turn as if
to leave the house. "Whatever thou art now, thou wert once a right good
fellow, and thou wert always ready to part with thy money to anyone who
needed it. I am a poor man myself, but I can lend t