a pathetic entreaty in the soft eyes--"it might be too much trouble
for Mr. Cardross--but will you teach me?"

"Yes, my dear!" said Helen, warmly, "that I will."

"Thank you. And"--still hesitating--"please would you always call
me 'my dear' instead of 'my lord;' and might I call you Helen?"

So they "made a paction 'twixt them twa"--the poor little helpless,
crippled boy, and the bright, active, energetic girl--the earl's son
and minister's daughter--one of those pactions which grow out of an
inner similitude which counteracts all outward dissimilarity; and they
never broke it while they lived.

"Has my lamb enjoyed himself?" inquired Mrs. Campbell, anxiously and
affectionately, when she reappeared from the Manse kitchen. Then, with
a sudden resumption of dignity, "I beg your pardon, Miss Cardross, but
this is the first time his lordship has ever been out to dinner."

"Oh, nurse, how I wish I might go out to dinner every Sunday! I am sure
this has been the happiest day of all my life."





Chapter 4

If the "happiest day in all his life" had been the first day the earl
spent at Cairnforth Manse, which very likely it was, he took the first