"Me? My ancestors!" he exclaimed. "Where did you get that idea? Who told you that this was ancestral land of mine?" "Mrs. Macleod, or Jamie, intimated it was yours by inheritance." "Hm--I must undeceive them. But _you_ are not to harbor such a thought for a moment." "I won't if you say so--but I would like to know how things stand." I grew bold to ask, at the thought of his expressed confidence in me. "Why, it's all so simple--" "More simple, I hope, than all that matter of seigniorial rights and transferences I read upon, in the Library before I came--and was no wiser than before." "And you thought-- Oh, this is rich!" he said, thoroughly amused. I nodded. "Yes; I thought you were a seignior. I dreamed dreams, before coming here of course, of retainers and ancestral halls, and then--I was met by Cale at the boat landing!" Mr. Ewart fairly shouted as he sensed my disappointment on the romantic side upon discovering Cale. "And the first thing you did, poor girl, was to lay a rag carpet strip in the passageway for my seigniorial boots--spurred, of course, in your imagination--to make wet snow tracks on! Oh, go on, go on; tell me some more. I would n't miss this for anything." Before I could speak there was a decided rap on the door. "That's Jamie," I said; "he has come for the fun." "Come in," cried Mr. Ewart. Jamie intruded his head; his rueful face caused an outburst on my part. "I say, Ewart, is it playing fair to a man to have all this unwonted hilarity in business hours, and keep me out?" "No more it is n't, mon vieux. Come in and hear about Miss Farrell's seigniorial romancing." "Go on, Marcia," said Jamie, sitting down by me. "You 've misled me, Jamie. Did n't you, or Mrs. Macleod, tell me when I first came that this Seigniory of Lamoral was Mr. Ewart's by inheritance?" "Well, it was in a way, was n't it, Gordon? It was a Ewart's?" "Not in a way, even. I never thought enough about your view of the matter to speak of it. Let's have a cigar, if Miss Farrell does n't object, and I 'll tell what there is to tell--there 's so little!" Jamie looked at me when Mr. Ewart rose to get the cigars--and looked unutterable things. I read his thought: "Now is our time to find out the truth of things heard and rumored."