he occasion of much useless expenditure
of guineas hard won from pigs and poultry. True, more serious loss was
often averted by the facility with which the Captain turned from one
scheme to another, happily forgetful of orders he had given and which
were never carried out; and by the invincible fabianism of the Highland
farmer, who, listening with gravest attention to the Captain's orders
delivered in the most definite and impressive terms, would make
reply, "Yess, yess indeed, I know; she will be attending to it
immediately--tomorrow, or fery soon whateffer." It cannot be said that
this capacity for indefinite procrastination rendered the Highlander any
less valuable to his "tear young leddy."

The days on which Postie appeared with a large bundle of mail were
accounted good days by the young mistress, for on these and succeeding
days her father would be "busy with his correspondence." And these days
were not few, for the Captain held many honourary offices in county
and other associations for the promotion and encouragement of various
activities, industrial, social, and philanthropic. Of the importance of
these activities to the county and national welfare, the Captain had no
manner of doubt, as his voluminous correspondence testified. As to the
worth of his correspondence his daughter, too, held the highest
opinion, estimating her father, as do all dutiful daughters, at his own
valuation. For the Captain held himself in high esteem; not simply for
his breeding, which was of the Camerons of Erracht; nor for his manners,
which were of the most courtly, if occasionally marred by fretfulness;
nor for his dress, which was that of a Highland gentleman, perfect in
detail and immaculate, but for his many and public services rendered to
the people, the county, and the nation. Indeed his mere membership dues
to the various associations, societies and committees with which he
was connected, and his dining expenses contingent upon their annual
meetings, together with the amounts expended upon the equipment and
adornment of his person proper to such festive occasions, cut so deep
into the slender resources of the family as to give his prudent daughter
some considerable concern; though it is safe to say that such concern
her father would have regarded not only as unnecessary but almost as
impertinent.

The Captain's correspondence, however extensive, was on the whole
regarded by his daughter as a good rather than an evil, in that