When he turned round Malcolm had placed the little figure in an arm-chair by the fire, and was busy unswathing the voluminous folds of the plaid in which it had been wrapped. Helen, after a glance or two, pretended to be equally busy over her daily duty--the common duty of Scotch housewives at that period--of washing up the delicate china with her own neat hands, and putting it safe away in the parlor press; for, as before said, Mr. Cardross's income was very small, and, like that of most country ministers, very uncertain, his stipend altering year by year, according to the price of corn. They kept one "lassie" to help, but Helen herself had to do a great deal of the housework. She went on doing it now, as probably she would in any case, being at once too simple and too proud to be ashamed of it; still, she was glad to seem busy, lest the earl might have fancied she was watching him. Her feminine instinct had been right. Now for the first time taken out of his shut-up nursery life, where he himself had been the principal object--where he had no playfellows and no companions save those he had been used to from infancy--removed from this, and brought into ordinary family life, the poor child felt--he could not but feel-- the sad, sad difference between himself and all the rest of the world. His color came and went--he looked anxiously, deprecatingly, at Mr. Cardross. "I hope, sir, you are not displeased with me for coming to-day. I shall not be very much trouble to you--at least I will try to be as little trouble as I can." "My boy," said the minister, crossing over to him and laying his hand upon his head, "You will not be the least trouble; and if you were ever so much, I would undertake it for the sake of your father and mother, and--" he added, more to himself than aloud--"for your own." That was true. Nature, which is never without her compensations, had put into this child of ten years old a strange charm, and inexpressible loveableness which springs from lovingness, though every loving nature is not fortunate enough to possess it. But the earl's did; and as he looked up into the minister's face, with that touchingly grateful expression he had, the good man felt his heart melt and brim over at his eyes. "You don't dislike me, then, because--because I am not like other boys?" Mr. Cardross smiled, though his eyes were still dim, and his voice not clear; and with that smile vanished forever the slight repulsion he had felt to the poor child. He took him permanently into his good heart, and from his manner the earl at once knew that it was so. He brightened up immediately.