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

I5i THE MASTEU OF BALLANTRAE.
" You will find him the least moved of all of us/''
said I.
" And yet I cannot face him/^ said she.
" Well," said I, " you can return to Mr. Henry ; I
will see my lord."
As we walked back, I bearing the candlesticks, she
the sword — a strange burthen for that woman — she had
another thought. " Should we tell Henry ? " she asked.
" Let my lord decide,'^ said I.
My lord was nearly dressed when I came to his
chamber. He heard me with a frown. '^The free-
traders," said he. " But whether dead or alive ? "
" I thought him " said I, and paused, ashamed
of the word.
" I know ; but you may very well have been in
error. Why should they remove him if not living ? " he
asked. " Oh ! here is a great door of hope. It must be
given out that he departed — as he came — without any
note of preparation. We must save all scandal."
I saw he had fallen, like the rest of us, to think
mainly of the house. Now that all the living meml^ers
of the family were plunged in irremediable sorrow, it
was strange how we turned to that conjoint abstraction
of the family .itself, and sought to bolster up the airy
nothing of its reputation : not the Duries only, but the
hired steward himself.
" Are we to tell Mr. Henry ? " I asked him.
" I will see," said he. " I am going first to visit him j