Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

14 THE MASTEPx, OF BALLANTRAE.
little wild perhaps^ the folk said ; but how mucli better
was a natural, wild lad that would soon have settled
down, than a skinflint and a sneckdraw, sitting, with
his nose in an account book, to persecute poor tenants !
One trollop, who had had a child to the Master, and by
all accounts been very badly used, yet made herself a
kind of champion of his memory. She flung- a stone
one day at Mr. Henry.
" Whaur's the bonnie lad that trustit ye ? " she cried.
Mr. Henry reined in his horse and looked upon her,
the blood flowing from his lip. "Ay, Jess? " says he.
" You too ? And yet ye should ken me better." For
it was he who had helped her with money.
The woman had another stone ready, which she made
as if she would cast ; and he, to ward himself, threw
up the hand that held his riding-rod.
" What, wonld ye beat a lassie, ye ugly ? " cries
she, and ran away screaming as though he had struck
her.
Next day word went about the country like wildfire
that Mr. Henry had beaten Jessie Broun within an
inch of her life. I give it as one instance of how this
snowball grew, and one calumny brought another ; until
my poor patron was so perished in reputation that he
began to keep the house like my lord. All this while,
you may be very sure, he uttered no complaints at home ;
the very groixnd of the scandal was too sore a matter to
be handled ; and jNIr. Henry was very proud and strangely