The Ayrshire Legatees




CHAPTER I--THE DEPARTURE



On New Year's day Dr. Pringle received a letter from India,
informing him that his cousin, Colonel Armour, had died at Hydrabad,
and left him his residuary legatee. The same post brought other
letters on the same subject from the agent of the deceased in
London, by which it was evident to the whole family that no time
should be lost in looking after their interests in the hands of such
brief and abrupt correspondents. "To say the least of it," as the
Doctor himself sedately remarked, "considering the greatness of the
forth-coming property, Messieurs Richard Argent and Company, of New
Broad Street, might have given a notion as to the particulars of the
residue." It was therefore determined that, as soon as the
requisite arrangements could be made, the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle
should set out for the metropolis, to obtain a speedy settlement
with the agents, and, as Rachel had now, to use an expression of her
mother's, "a prospect before her," that she also should accompany
them: Andrew, who had just been called to the Bar, and who had come
to the manse to spend a few days after attaining that distinction,
modestly suggested, that, considering the various professional
points which might be involved in the objects of his father's
journey, and considering also the retired life which his father had
led in the rural village of Garnock, it might be of importance to