interest in it, and invited the General to remain on the place for the
present as its manager.

General Keith sat for some time over that letter, his face as grave as
it had ever been in battle. What swept before his mental vision who
shall know? The history of two hundred years bound the Keiths to
Elphinstone. They had carved it from the forest and had held it against
the Indian. From there they had gone to the highest office of the State.
Love, marriage, death--all the sanctities of life--were bound up with
it. He talked it over with Gordon.

Gordon's face fell.

"Why, father, you will be nothing but an overseer."

General Keith smiled. Gordon remembered long afterwards, with shame for
his Speech, how wistful that smile was.

"Yes; I shall be something more than that. I shall be, at least, a
faithful one. I wish I could be as successful a one."

He wrote saying that, as he had failed for himself, he did not see how
he could succeed for another. But upon receiving a very flattering
reassurance, he accepted the offer. Thus, the General remained as an
employé on the estate which had been renowned for generations as the
home of the Keiths. And as agent for the new owner he farmed the place
with far greater energy and success than he had ever shown on his own
account. It was a bitter cup for Gordon to have his father act as an
"overseer"; but if it contained any bitterness for General Keith, he
never gave the least evidence of it, nor betrayed his feeling by the