Warlock o' Glenwarlock: A Homely Romance

r grasped it, and without a word spoken, they walked on together. They would often be half a day t

ded with great broad iron knobs, arranged in angular patterns. It was set deep in the thick wall, but there were signs of there having been a second, doubtless still stronger, flush with the external surface, for the great hooks of the hinges remained, with the deep hole in the stone on the opposite side for the bolt. The key was in the lock, for, except to open the windows, and do other nece

a few mouldering heads of wild animals-the stag and the fox and the otter-one ancient wolf's-head also, wherever that had been killed. But it was not into this room the laird led his son. The passage ended in a stone stair that went up between containing walls. It was much worn, and had so little head-room that the l

eaked dismally as it opened. He entered and undid a shutter, letting an abiding flash of the ever young light of the summer day

d, inlaid tables stood about the room, but most of the chairs were of a sturdier make, one or two of rich carved work of India, no doubt a great rarity when first brought to Glenwarlock. The walls had once had colour, but it was so retiring and indistinct in the little light that came through the one small deep-set window whose shutter had been opened, that you could not have said what it was. There were three or four cabinets-one of them old Japanese; and on a table a case of gorgeous humming birds. The scarlet cloth that covered the table was faded to a dirty orange, but the birds were almost as bright as when they darted like live jewels through the tropical sunlight. Exquisite as they were however, they had not for the boy half the interest of a faded old fire-screen, lovelily worked in silks, by hands to

etween his thin knees, and began to talk to him. Now there was this difference between the relation of these two and that of most fathers and sons, that, thus taken into solemn solitude by his old father, the boy felt no dismay, no sense of fault to be found, no troubled expec

still clasped in his father's left, and his left hand leaning gently on his father's knee. Then, as I say, the old man began to tal

our birthd

, pa

e now f

, pa

rowing qui

t know,

a man this day, and tell you some things that I have never talked about

rom the desire to keep the boy's remembrance of her fresh, and for the pure pleasure of talking of

papa,

him seriously offended had he addressed her in book-English; but to his Marion's son he a

remember about her

if he hoped and watched for some fresh revelation from the lips of the lad-as if,

tiful woman, with long hair, which she b

hich he had actually beheld her. And indeed the father saw her after the same fashion in the memory of his love. Tall to the boy of five, she was little above the middle height, yet the husband saw her stately in his

r were her

r of them; but I remember they looke

y boy. We must be very good tha

ry. I do

that it is not enough to be a good boy, as I shall tell her you have always been: you've got to be a good man, and that is a rather different and sometimes a harder thing. For, as soon as a man has to do with other men, he finds they expect him to do things they ought to be ashamed of doing themselves; and then he has got to stand on his own honest legs, and not move an inch for all their pushing and pulling; and especially where a man loves his fellow man and likes to be on good terms with him, that is not easy. The thing is just this, Cosmo-when you are a full-grown man, you must be a good boy still-that's the difficulty. For a man to be a boy, and a good boy still, he must be a thorough man. The man that's not manly can never be a good boy to his mother. And you can't keep true to your mother, ex

ary old carcase that's now crumbling away from about me. Some would tell me I ought to shudder at the thought of leaving you to such poverty, but I am too anxious about yourself, my boy, to think much about the hardships that may be waiting you. I should be far more afraid about you if I were leaving you rich. I have seen rich people do things I never knew a poor gentleman do. I don't mean to say anything against the rich-there's good and bad of all sorts; but I just can't be so very sorry that I am leaving you to poverty, though, if I might have had my way, it wouldn't have been s

f the affairs of the property. He showed him where all the papers were kept, and directed him to whom to go for any requisite legal advise. Weary t

mistress. "It's the yoong laird's birthday, ye see, an' they aye haud a colloguin'

ell," said the grandmothe

Grizzie to herself; "it's eneuch to raise a

and finding the great doo

confess, however-let it tell against the laird's honesty as it may-that, his design being neither to glorify his family, nor to teach records, but to impress all he coul

laird," she said, stand

l tell you more about that brother of my grandfather's. Come along to dinner now.-I houp ye hae something in honour

be nane the waur that ye hae keepit them i' the pot a whilie langer.-Cosmo," she went on when they had descended, and overtaken the boy, who was waiti

nded Cosmo humbly; and all w

eady at the head of the table, waiting their arrival. She made a kind speech to the boy, hoping he would be master of the place for many years after his father and she had left him. Then the meal commenced. It did not last long. They had the soup first, and then the fowl that had been boiled in it, with a small second dish of potatoes-th