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

24 TJIE .MASTKll OF BALLAXTltAE.
but dear me^ he's doad^ Mr. Mackellar ! and while he
lived we were all very proud of him, all very proud. I£
he was not all he should have been in some ways, well,
perhaps we loved him better ! " This last he said looking
musing-ly in the fire ; and then to me, with a great deal
of briskness, '■ But I am rejoiced you do so well with
Mr. Henry. You will find him a good master.''^ And
with that he opened his book, which was the customary
signal of dismission. But it would be little that he
read, and less that he understood ; Culloden field and
the Master, these would be the burthen of his thought ;
and the burthen of mine was an unnatural jealousy of
the dead man for ]Mr. Henry's sa1ce, that had even then
begun to grow on me.
I am keeping Mrs. Henry for the last, so that this
expression of my sentiment may seem unwarrantably
strong : the reader shall judge for himself when I have
done. But I must first tell of another matter, which was
the means of bringing me more intimate. I had not yet
been six mouths at Durrisdeer when it chanced that
John Paul fell sick and must keep his bed ; drink was
the root of his malady, in my poor thought ; but he was
tended, and indeed carried himself, like an afflicted saint ;
and the very minister, who came to visit him, professed
himself edified when he went away. The third morning
of his sickness, ]Mr. Henry comes to me with something
of a haug-dog look.
" Mackellar,^^ says he, " I wish I could trouble you