"My lord, do you think that we obscure country-folk know nothing? or that reputations don't fly farther than Edinburgh? The truth is that we of the younger generation are not made of the same stuff. That is what my grandmother tells me so often--so often that, from force of habit, I don't listen. But I have begun to believe it at last." "She is a wise woman," said Balnillo. "She has been a mighty attractive one," observed Archie meditatively; "at least, so she was thought at St. Germain." "At St. Germain?" exclaimed the judge. "My grandfather died in exile with his master, and my father too," replied Flemington quietly. There was a silence, and then James Logie opened his mouth to speak, but Archie had risen. "Let me go, Lord Balnillo," he said. "The truth is, my work needs a steady hand, and I mean to have it when I begin your portrait to-morrow." When he had gone James took the empty seat by his brother. "His grandfather with the King, and he following this womanish trade!" he exclaimed. "I should like to have asked him more about his father," said Balnillo; "but----" "He did not wish to speak; I could see that," said James. "I like the fellow, David, in spite of his paint-pots. I would like him much if I had time to like anything." "I have been asking myself: am I a fool to be keeping him here?" said the other. "Was I right to let a strange man into the house at such a time? I am relieved, James. He is on the right side." "He keeps his ears open, brother." "He seems to know all about _me_," observed Balnillo. "He's a fine lad, Jamie--a lad of fine taste; and his free tongue hasn't interfered with his good sense. And I am relieved, as I said." Logie smiled again. The affection he had for his brother was of that solid quality which accepts a character in the lump, and loves it for its best parts. David's little vanities and vacillations, his meticulous love of small things, were plain enough to the soldier, and he knew well that the bench and the bar alike had found plenty to make merry over in Balnillo. He had all the loyal feeling which the Scot of his time bore to the head of his family, and, as his sentiments towards him sprang from the heart rather than from the brain, it is possible that he undervalued the sudden fits of shrewdness which would attack his brother as headache or ague might attack another man. The fact that David's colleagues had never made this mistake was responsible for a career the success of which surprised many who knew the judge by hearsay alone. Drink, detail and indecision have probably ruined more characters than any three other influences in the world; but the two latter had not quite succeeded with Lord Balnillo, and the former had passed him over. "I wonder----" said James--"I wonder is it a good chance that has sent him here? Could we make anything of him, David?"