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"Ay," Lord Cairnforth said to himself, when she had gone away, and he was left alone in that helpless solitude which, being the inevitable necessity, had grown into the familiar habit of his life, "ay, it is all right. No harm could come there would be nothing neglected even were I to die to-morrow."
He remembered it all now the last night he had spent at Cairnforth with his cousin the conversation which passed between them the questions asked, which, from his not answering, might have enabled the captain to guess at the probable disposal of his property.
Once or twice, when he had noticed a slight hesitation of uneasiness in her manner, Lord Cairnforth had said, "I promised him, you remember," and this had silenced her. Besides she was too utterly worn out and broken down to resist any kindness.
In truth, since Mrs. Cardross died the minister had shut himself up almost entirely, and had scarcely had a single interest out of his own study until the earl came home to Cairnforth.
"Show me its boundary; there is the map." Helen took it down and drew with a pencil the limits of the Cairnforth estates. They extended along the whole peninsula, and far up into the main land. "There, Lord Cairnforth, every bit of this is yours." "To do exactly what I like with?" "Certainly." "Helen, it is an awfully serious thing." Helen was silent. "How strange!" He continued, after a pause.
Lord Cairnforth refused to let his visitor say one word, or even sit down, till he had placed her in Mrs. Campbell's charge, to be dried and reclothed, for she was dripping wet with rain such rain as come nowhere but at Loch Beg. By-and-by she reappeared in the library, moving through its heavy shadows, and looking herself again the calm, dignified woman, "my cousin, Mrs.
But they also said as no one could help seeing and saying that very few fathers were blessed with a son half so attentive and devoted as this young man was to the Earl of Cairnforth.
This, then this poor little deformed figure, with every limb shrunken and useless, and every joint distorted, the head just able to sustain itself and turn feebly from one side to the other, and the thin white hands piteously twisted and helpless-looking this, then, was the Earl of Cairnforth. "It's a bonnie loch, Malcolm." "It looks awful' bonnie the day, my lord."
Now, whatever her circumstances were, or might have been once, misery, poverty, could never afflict Helen more. He was quite determined that from the time he brought them home, his cousin and his cousin's wife should inhabit Cairnforth Castle; that, whether Captain Bruce's life proved to be long or short, worthy or unworthy, he should be borne with, and forgiven every thing for Helen's sake.
"I hope he was English; I should not like a Scotsman to do such a rude thing," cried Helen, indignantly. Lord Cairnforth laughed at her impulsiveness. There was much of the child nature mingled in Helen's gravity and wisdom, and she sometimes did both speak and act from impulse especially generous and kindly impulse as hastily and unthinkingly as a child.
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