with plain kind speeches. He led me into the hall, booted as I

was, to present me to my lord. It was still daylight; and the

first thing I observed was a lozenge of clear glass in the midst of

the shield in the painted window, which I remember thinking a

blemish on a room otherwise so handsome, with its family portraits,

and the pargeted ceiling with pendants, and the carved chimney, in

one corner of which my old lord sat reading in his Livy. He was

like Mr. Henry, with much the same plain countenance, only more

subtle and pleasant, and his talk a thousand times more

entertaining. He had many questions to ask me, I remember, of

Edinburgh College, where I had just received my mastership of arts,

and of the various professors, with whom and their proficiency he

seemed well acquainted; and thus, talking of things that I knew, I

soon got liberty of speech in my new home.

In the midst of this came Mrs. Henry into the room; she was very

far gone, Miss Katharine being due in about six weeks, which made

me think less of her beauty at the first sight; and she used me

with more of condescension than the rest; so that, upon all

accounts, I kept her in the third place of my esteem.

It did not take long before all Patey Macmorland's tales were

blotted out of my belief, and I was become, what I have ever since

remained, a loving servant of the house of Durrisdeer. Mr. Henry

had the chief part of my affection. It was with him I worked; and

I found him an exacting master, keeping all his kindness for those

hours in which we were unemployed, and in the steward's office not

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