his wife was left a beggar. Fortunately, however, she died--her
sister spread a story that it was from the shock and grief--before
the child which she expected was born. This all happened when my
cousin--or, rather, my father's cousin, my first-cousin-once-removed,
to be accurate--was still a very small child. His mother then sent
for Miss MacKelpie, her brother-in-law's sister-in-law, to come and
live with her, which she did--beggars can't be choosers; and she
helped to bring up young St. Leger.

I remember once my father giving me a sovereign for making a witty
remark about her. I was quite a boy then, not more than thirteen;
but our family were always clever from the very beginning of life,
and father was telling me about the St. Leger family. My family
hadn't, of course, seen anything of them since Captain St. Leger
died--the circle to which we belong don't care for poor relations--
and was explaining where Miss MacKelpie came in. She must have been
a sort of nursery governess, for Mrs. St. Leger once told him that
she helped her to educate the child.

"Then, father," I said, "if she helped to educate the child she ought
to have been called Miss MacSkelpie!"

When my first-cousin-once-removed, Rupert, was twelve years old, his
mother died, and he was in the dolefuls about it for more than a
year. Miss MacKelpie kept on living with him all the same. Catch
her quitting! That sort don't go into the poor-house when they can
keep out! My father, being Head of the Family, was, of course, one
of the trustees, and his uncle Roger, brother of the testator,
another. The third was General MacKelpie, a poverty-stricken Scotch
laird who had a lot of valueless land at Croom, in Ross-shire. I