ic. So far as I only am concerned,
I am all right; a gridiron and a saucepan are all _I_ want--and I can
use them myself. But, dear Aunt Janet, I don't want you to pig it.
I would like you to have everything you can imagine, and all of the
very best. Cost doesn't count now for us, thanks to Uncle Roger; and
so I want you to order all. I know you, dear--being a woman--won't
object to shopping. But it will have to be wholesale. This is an
enormous place, and will swallow up all you can buy--like a
quicksand. Do as you like about choosing, but get all the help you
can. Don't be afraid of getting too much. You can't, or of being
idle when you are here. I assure you that when you come there will
be so much to do and so many things to think of that you will want to
get away from it all. And, besides, Aunt Janet, I hope you won't be
too long. Indeed, I don't wish to be selfish, but your boy is
lonely, and wants you. And when you get here you will be an EMPRESS.
I don't altogether like doing so, lest I should offend a
millionairess like you; but it may facilitate matters, and the way's
of commerce are strict, though devious. So I send you a cheque for
1,000 pounds for the little things: and a letter to the bank to
honour your own cheques for any amount I have got.

I think, by the way, I should, if I were you, take or send out a few
servants--not too many at first, only just enough to attend on our
two selves. You can arrange to send for any more you may want later.
Engage them, and arrange for their being paid--when they are in our
service we must treat them well--and then they can be at our call as
you find that we want them. I think you should secure, say, fifty or
a hundred--'tis an awfu' big place, Aunt Janet! And in the same way
will you secure--and, of course, arrange for pay similarly--a hundred
men, exclusive of any servants you think it well to have. I should
like the General, if he can give the time, to choose or pass them. I
want clansmen that I can depend on, if need be. We are going to live
in a country which is at present strange to us, and it is well to
look things in the face. I know Sir Colin will only have men who are
a credit to Scotland and to Ross and to Croom--men who will impress
the Blue Mountaineers. I know they will take them to their
hearts--