will know. And mother," he cried, with a softening of repose upon his
face, his limbs relaxing, his form sinking with a luxurious ease in his
bed,--"mother can come and take care of me."

I called her, and saw him turn to her with the complete dependence of a
child; and then I went away and left them, as perplexed a man as any in
Scotland. I must say, however, I had this consolation, that my mind was
greatly eased about Roland. He might be under a hallucination; but his
head was clear enough, and I did not think him so ill as everybody else
did. The girls were astonished even at the ease with which I took it.
"How do you think he is?" they said in a breath, coming round me, laying
hold of me. "Not half so ill as I expected," I said; "not very bad at
all." "Oh, papa, you are a darling!" cried Agatha, kissing me, and crying
upon my shoulder; while little Jeanie, who was as pale as Roland, clasped
both her arms round mine, and could not speak at all. I knew nothing
about it, not half so much as Simson; but they believed in me: they had a
feeling that all would go right now. God is very good to you when your
children look to you like that. It makes one humble, not proud. I was not
worthy of it; and then I recollected that I had to act the part of a
father to Roland's ghost,--which made me almost laugh, though I might
just as well have cried. It was the strangest mission that ever was
intrusted to mortal man.

It was then I remembered suddenly the looks of the men when they turned
to take the brougham to the stables in the dark that morning. They had
not liked it, and the horses had not liked it. I remembered that even in
my anxiety about Roland I had heard them tearing along the avenue back to
the stables, and had made a memorandum mentally that I must speak of it.
It seemed to me that the best thing I could do was to go to the stables
now and make a few inquiries. It is impossible to fathom the minds of