the piper. This luck or dexterity got him several ill-wishers, but

with the rest of the country, enhanced his reputation; so that

great things were looked for in his future, when he should have

gained more gravity. One very black mark he had to his name; but

the matter was hushed up at the time, and so defaced by legends

before I came into those parts, that I scruple to set it down. If

it was true, it was a horrid fact in one so young; and if false, it

was a horrid calumny. I think it notable that he had always

vaunted himself quite implacable, and was taken at his word; so

that he had the addition among his neighbours of "an ill man to

cross." Here was altogether a young nobleman (not yet twenty-four

in the year '45) who had made a figure in the country beyond his

time of life. The less marvel if there were little heard of the

second son, Mr. Henry (my late Lord Durrisdeer), who was neither

very bad nor yet very able, but an honest, solid sort of lad like

many of his neighbours. Little heard, I say; but indeed it was a

case of little spoken. He was known among the salmon fishers in

the firth, for that was a sport that he assiduously followed; he

was an excellent good horse-doctor besides; and took a chief hand,

almost from a boy, in the management of the estates. How hard a

part that was, in the situation of that family, none knows better

than myself; nor yet with how little colour of justice a man may

there acquire the reputation of a tyrant and a miser. The fourth

person in the house was Miss Alison Graeme, a near kinswoman, an

orphan, and the heir to a considerable fortune which her father had

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