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

SUMMARY OF EVENTS. 19
about six weeks^ which made me think less of her
beauty at the first sight ; and she used me with more of
condescension than the rest ; so that^ upon all accounts,
I kept her in the third place of my esteem.
•It did not take long before all Patey Macmorland^s
tales were blotted out of my belief, and I was become,
what I have ever since remained, a loving servant of the
house of Durrisdeer. Mr. Henry had the chief part of my
affection . It was with him I worked ; and I found him an
exacting master, keeping all his kindness for those hours
in which we were unemployed, and in the steward^s office
not only loading me with work, but viewing me with
a shrewd supervision. At length one day he looked up
from his paper with a kind of timidness, and says he^
'' jNIr. Mackellar, I think I ought to tell you that you
do very well.'^ That was my first word of commenda-
tion ; and from that day his jealousy of my performance
was relaxed; soon it was "Mr. Mackellar^'' here, and
"Mr. Mackellar ^^ there, with the whole family; and
for much of my service at Durrisdeer, I have transacted
everything at my own time, and to my own fancy, and
never a farthing challenged. Even while he was driv-
ing me, I had begun to find my heart go out to Mr.
Henry ; no doubt, partly in pity, he was a man so
palpably unhappy. He would fall into a deep muse over
our accounts, staring at the page or out of the window ;
and at those times the look of his face, and the sigh that
would break from him, awoke in me strong feelings of
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