CHAPTER III THE CAPTAIN'S CHILDREN


LORD GLENARVAN'S fortune was enormous, and he spent it entirely in
doing good. His kindheartedness was even greater than his generosity,
for the one knew no bounds, while the other, of necessity,
had its limits. As Lord of Luss and "laird" of Malcolm, he represented
his county in the House of Lords; but, with his Jacobite ideas,
he did not care much for the favor of the House of Hanover,
and he was looked upon coldly by the State party in England,
because of the tenacity with which he clung to the traditions
of his forefathers, and his energetic resistance to the political
encroachments of Southerners. And yet he was not a man behind
the times, and there was nothing little or narrow-minded about him;
but while always keeping open his ancestral county to progress,
he was a true Scotchman at heart, and it was for the honor of Scotland
that he competed in the yacht races of the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

Edward Glenarvan was thirty-two years of age. He was tall in person,
and had rather stern features; but there was an exceeding sweetness
in his look, and a stamp of Highland poetry about his whole bearing.
He was known to be brave to excess, and full of daring and chivalry--
a Fer-gus of the nineteenth century; but his goodness excelled every
other quality, and he was more charitable than St. Martin himself, for he
would have given the whole of his cloak to any of the poor Highlanders.

He had scarcely been married three months, and his bride
was Miss Helena Tuffnell, the daughter of William Tuffnell,