"In plainer English still, you met adversity like a brave lad, and you
have fairly earned the good luck that has fallen to you," rejoined Sir
Patrick. "Give me your hand--I have taken a liking to you. You're not
like the other young fellows of the present time. I shall call you
'Arnold.' You mus'n't return the compliment and call me 'Patrick,'
mind--I'm too old to be treated in that way. Well, and how do you get on
here? What sort of a woman is my sister-in-law? and what sort of a house
is this?"

Arnold burst out laughing.

"Those are extraordinary questions for you to put to me," he said. "You
talk, Sir, as if you were a stranger here!"

Sir Patrick touched a spring in the knob of his ivory cane. A little
gold lid flew up, and disclosed the snuff-box hidden inside. He took a
pinch, and chuckled satirically over some passing thought, which he did
not think it necessary to communicate to his young friend.

"I talk as if I was a stranger here, do I?" he resumed. "That's exactly
what I am. Lady Lundie and I correspond on excellent terms; but we run
in different grooves, and we see each other as seldom as possible. My
story," continued the pleasant old man, with a charming frankness which
leveled all differences of age and rank between Arnold and himself,
"is not entirely unlike yours; though I _am_ old enough to be your
grandfather. I was getting my living, in my way (as a crusty old Scotch
lawyer), when my brother married again. His death, without leaving a son
by either of his wives, gave me a lift in the world, like you. Here I
am (to my own sincere regret) the present baronet. Yes, to my sincere