him; he read in each the avowal of her truant fancies.
That constancy to the Master of which she was proud while she supposed him dead,
she had to blush for now she knew he was alive, and these blushes were the hated
spring of her new conduct. I am to conceal no truth; and I will here say
plainly, I think this was the period in which Mr. Henry showed the worst. He
contained himself, indeed, in public; but there was a deep-seated irritation
visible underneath. With me, from whom he had less concealment, he was often
grossly unjust, and even for his wife he would sometimes have a sharp retort:
perhaps when she had ruffled him with some unwonted kindness; perhaps upon no
tangible occasion, the mere habitual tenor of the man's annoyance bursting
spontaneously forth. When he would thus forget himself (a thing so strangely out
of keeping with the terms of their relation), there went a shock through the
whole company, and the pair would look upon each other in a kind of pained
amazement.
    All the time, too, while he was injuring himself by this defect of temper,
he was hurting his position by a silence, of which I scarce know whether to say
it was the child of generosity or pride. The free-traders came again and again,
bringing messengers from the Master, and none departed empty-handed. I never
durst reason with Mr. Henry; he gave what was asked of him in a kind of noble
rage. Perhaps because he knew he was by nature inclining to the parsimonious, he
took a backforemost pleasure in the recklessness with which he supplied his
brother's exigence. Perhaps the falsity of the position would have spurred a
humbler man into the same excess. But the estate (if I may say so) groaned under
it; our daily expenses were shorn lower and lower; the stables were emptied, all
but four roadsters; servants were discharged, which raised a dreadful murmuring
in the country, and heated up the old disfavour upon Mr. Henry; and at last the
yearly visit to Edinburgh must be discontinued.
    This was in 1756. You are to suppose that for seven years this bloodsucker
had been drawing the life's blood from Durrisdeer, and that all this time my
patron had held his peace. It was an effect of devilish malice in the Master
that he addressed Mr. Henry alone upon the matter of his demands, and there was
never a word to my lord. The family had looked on, wondering at our economies.
They had lamented,