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

SU.AIMARY or EVENTS. 2-3
murder^ a'botly said that. Ask Jolin Paul — he was
brawly ashamed o' that game, him that's sic a Christian
man ! Grand doiu's for the Master o^ Ball'ntrae ! " I
asked him what the jMaster had thought of it himself.
" How would I ken ?^' says he. ''He never said nae-
thing'." And on again iu his usual manner of banning
and swearing, with every now and again a ''Master of
Ballantrae " sneered through his nose. It was in one of
these confidences that he showed me the Carlisle letter,
the print of the horse-shoe still stamped in the paper.
Indeed, that was our last confidence; for he then ex-
])ressed himself so ill-naturedly of Mrs. Henry that I
had to reprimand him sharply, and must thenceforth
hald him at a distance.
jNIy old lord was uniformly kind to Mr. Henry ; he had
even pretty ways of gratitude, and would sometimes clap
him on the shoulder and say, as if to the world at large :
" This is a very good son to me.''' And grateful he was,
no doubt, being a man of sense and justice. But I
think that was all, and I am sure Mr. Henry thought
so. The love was all for the dead son. Not that this
was often given breath to ; indeed, with me but once.
jNIy lord had asked me one day how I got on with Mr.
Henry, and I had told him the truth.
" Ay," said he, looking sideways on the burning fire,
" Henry is a good lad, a very good lad," said he. " You
have heard, ^Ir. ^laekellar, that I had another son ? I
am afraid he was not so virtuous a lad as Mr. Henry;