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from indulging in this speculation by the minister, who, as soon as he entered the manse, put into his hand a letter from Augustus Stuart.

CHAPTER X.

"The mark of Cain is on him."

VILLEJUIVE was now very busy in preparing his land for the seed-time, and the caim of St. Clyde looked quite smart. His housekeeper, however, by the revolutions she was daily causing it to undergo, did not escape the severest curses of Isabel Ross, her maid-servant. Isabel's household work was never done; she could get no time for spinning, and she augured that her master would yet go without a sark, if the wheel was at leisure. The housekeeper prohibited Isabel from sleeping in the kitchen; and wished her to adopt several foreign customs. Poor Isabel

feared the wives in the parish would follow her example; and that neither potatoes nor clothes would ever be washed clean, if the lasses were hindered from washing them in the "auld skeils with their twa feet;" and Isabel threipet that, good as the housekeeper was, her ain mither, wha used ta tak off the beards of the barley in the muckle trouch stane wi' a muckle mell, and better broth she ne'er sowpit than slypit oure her craig i' her ain mither's hallan;" Isabel, we say, thought her own mother "was as good as the housekeeper," and used to tell the neighbouring lasses that she "wad prefer a shake down in the kitchen to the muckle laft," for so she termed an immense garret in which she now slept. The garret ran nearly the whole depth of the house, and it 'contained a little of every thing;"lint, meal, yarn, nets, wood, tar, a

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carpenter's bench, a turner's lathe, a smith's bellows," and fifty other things belonging to the Laird St. Clyde, which M. Villejuive purchased from the distressed Ellen.

M. Villejuive affected great cleanliness; and this spurred on the housekeeper, who by the bye was an Irish lady, to cause Isabel to bestir herself in the article of churning, as the laird (for so she termed the emigrant) liked nice butter. Isabel was not pleased at the directions the officious housekeeper gave her, and prophesied saying, "If the butter has nae hairs in't, auld hawkie winna thrive oure Hallowmas."

But one day Mrs. housekeeper called Isabel" an idle wench;" and, quoth Isabel in her turn, "A clean kitchen is a sign o' poortith i' housekeeping". and she was sure the "new laird wad nae be lucky i' the auld house, 'cause

the auld laird left it vera gusty;" and another of her prophecies was, that "she was feckless wi' fricht the new laird wad nae come to mony nievefu's o' guid, 'cause he shot a kenspeckle hare i' her form."

These wise saws had not yet come to M. Villejuive's ears, nor those of his sons, though the good people of the neighbourhood heard them all; and there was not one of the prophecies that did not receive under its command an entire squadron of "auld sayings and oure true proverbs," which were daily brought forth in review at the smithy, the ferry, the barber's shop, and "Lucky Macneil's ale-house."

Miss St. Clyde had lived at the manse in a mixture of peace, comfort, and sorrow. It was, indeed, the house of a good man; and the attentions of Mr. and Mrs. Thornhill were those of unwearied friendship. When the good

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