the plaid in which it had been wrapped. Helen, after a glance or two,
pretended to be equally busy over her daily duty--the common duty of
Scotch housewives at that period--of washing up the delicate china
with her own neat hands, and putting it safe away in the parlor press;
for, as before said, Mr. Cardross's income was very small, and, like
that of most country ministers, very uncertain, his stipend altering
year by year, according to the price of corn. They kept one "lassie" to
help, but Helen herself had to do a great deal of the housework. She
went on doing it now, as probably she would in any case, being at once
too simple and too proud to be ashamed of it; still, she was glad to
seem busy, lest the earl might have fancied she was watching him.

Her feminine instinct had been right. Now for the first time taken out
of his shut-up nursery life, where he himself had been the principal
object--where he had no playfellows and no companions save those he
had been used to from infancy--removed from this, and brought into
ordinary family life, the poor child felt--he could not but feel--
the sad, sad difference between himself and all the rest of the world.
His color came and went--he looked anxiously, deprecatingly, at Mr.
Cardross.

"I hope, sir, you are not displeased with me for coming to-day. I shall
not be very much trouble to you--at least I will try to be as little
trouble as I can."

"My boy," said the minister, crossing over to him and laying his hand
upon his head, "You will not be the least trouble; and if you were ever
so much, I would undertake it for the sake of your father and mother,
and--" he added, more to himself than aloud--"for your own."