As soon as they were out of the kitchen-door, the boy pushed his
hand into his father's; the father grasped it, and without a word
spoken, they walked on together. They would often be half a day
together without a word passing between them. To be near, each to
the other, seemed enough for each.

Cosmo had thought his father was going somewhere about the farm, to
see how things were getting on; but, instead of crossing to the
other side of the court, where lay the sheds and stables, etc., or
leaving it by the gate, the laird turned to the left, and led the
way to the next block of building, where he stopped at a door at
the farther end of the front of it. It was a heavy oak door,
studded with great broad iron knobs, arranged in angular patterns.
It was set deep in the thick wall, but there were signs of there
having been a second, doubtless still stronger, flush with the
external surface, for the great hooks of the hinges remained, with
the deep hole in the stone on the opposite side for the bolt. The
key was in the lock, for, except to open the windows, and do other
necessary pieces of occasional tendance, it was seldom anybody
entered the place, and Grizzie generally turned the key, and left
it in the lock. She would have been indignant at the assertion, but
I am positive it was not ALWAYS taken out at night. In this part of
the castle were the dining and drawing rooms, and immediately over
the latter, a state bedroom in which nobody had slept for many
years.

It was into a narrow passage, no wider than itself, the door led.
From this passage a good-sized hall opened to the left--very barely
furnished, but with a huge fireplace, and a great old table, that