"Your letter, Mr. Ferguson," said Mrs. Catherine, as Jacky again appeared at the door. "Let Andrew--is it Andrew?--lose no time! Here, you elf! Have you anything else to advise, Mr. Foreman? I myself would start in a moment, but that I think Mr. Ferguson would do it better. The lad's spirit is broken, doubtless, and I might be over harsh upon him. Give me Archie's letter." Mrs. Catherine's large grey eyelid swelled full again, and she seated herself at the table. "I have nothing else to advise," said Mr. Foreman, abstractedly. "I think it is very wise, and you should start at once, Mr. Ferguson. But--" The lawyer paused. "Is it not possible to do anything? Could no compromise be made? Better mortgage the land (it was mortgaged heavily enough in his grandfather's time--I remember how old Strathoran was hampered by paying them off,) than suffer it to pass altogether out of his hands. Could nothing be done? Mrs. Catherine, if such an arrangement were possible, would you not lend your assistance?" Mrs. Catherine raised her eyes from the letter. "To what end or purpose? That he might have the freedom of losing the land again, if it were won back to him by the spending of other folks' substance? George Foreman, it is not like your wisdom to think of such a thing. A penniless laird--a shadow, and no substance--with a false rank to keep up, and nothing coming in to keep it up withal? I will not hear of it! Gentlemen, I have made up my mind; out of yon hot unnatural air of artificial ill, the lad must come down to the cold blast of poverty, if he is ever to be anything but a silken fule, spending gear unjustly gotten, in an unlawful way. I say I will have no hand in giving back plenty and ease to Archie Sutherland, till he has righteously wrought and struggled for the same. Bring him back to my house, Robert Ferguson. He has lost the home and the lands of his fathers. Let him see them in the hands of an alien, and then let him gird his loins to a right warfare, and win them back again. With God's blessing, and man's labor, there is nought in this world impossible. I hope to live to see him win back his possessions, as I have seen him lose them. If he does not, he deserves them not." "Write to him so," said Mr. Ferguson, eagerly. "It is the spur he needs. Let me have a letter, so hopeful and encouraging, to carry with me, Mrs. Catherine. Mere reproach would do evil, and not good. You are perfectly right. A struggle--a warfare--that is the true prescription. Write to Mr. Archibald yourself--it will have more effect than anything I can say." Mr. Foreman sighed, and felt almost inclined to withdraw his adherence from those reformers who aim at the abolition of entails. At length, and slowly, he signified his consent. "Yes--yes: Mrs. Catherine is right. I believe it is the wisest way. But--"