"I wonder how I should set about managing my property. The duty will not be as easy for me as for most people, you know," added he, sadly; "still, if I had a secretary--a thorough man of business, to teach me all about business, and to be constantly at my side, perhaps I might be able to accomplish it. And I might drive about the country--driving is less painful to me now--and get acquainted with my people; see what they wanted, and how I could best help them. They would get used to me, too. I might turn out to be a very respectable laird, and become interested in the improvement of my estates." "There is great opportunity for that, I know," replied Helen. And then she told him of a conversation she had heard between her father and Mr. Menteith, when the latter had spoken of great changes impending over quiet Cairnforth: how a steamer was to begin plying up and down the loch --how there were continual applications for land to be feued--and how all these improvements would of necessity require the owner of the soil to take many a step unknown to and undreamed of by his forefathers --to make roads, reclaim hill and moorland, build new farms, churches, and school-houses. "In short, as Mr. Menteith said, the world is changing so fast that the present Earl of Cairnforth will have any thing but the easy life of his father and grandfather. "Did Mr. Menteith say that?" cried the earl, eagerly. "He did, indeed; I heard him." "And did he seem to think that I should be able for it?" "I can not tell," answered truthful Helen. "He said not a word one way or the other about your being capable of doing the work; he only said the work was to done." "Then I will try and do it." The earl said this quietly enough, but his eyes gleamed and his lips quivered. Helen laid her hand upon his, much move. "I said you were brave-- always; still, you must think twice about it, for it will be a very responsible duty--enough, Mr. Menteith told papa, to require a man's whole energies for the next twenty years." "I wonder if I shall live so long. Well, I am glad, Helen. It will be something worth living for." Chapter 7 Malcolm's saying that "if my lord taks a thing into his heid he'll do't, ye ken," was as true now as when the earl was a little boy. Mr. Mentieth hardly knew how the thing was accomplished--indeed, he had rather opposed it, believing the mere physical impediments to his ward's overlooking his own affairs were insurmountable; but Lord Cairnforth contrived in the course of a day or two to initiate himself very fairly in all the business attendant upon the "term;" to find out the exact extent and divisions of his property, and to whom it was feued. And on term-day he proposed, though with an evident effort which touched the old lawyer deeply, to sit beside Mr. Menteith while the tenants were paying their rents, so as to become personally known to each of them.