Archibald Sutherland extended his hand silently, and grasped his factor's. "My punishment is to be overpowered with undeserved kindness," he said, his voice trembling. "My obligations to you already transcend thanks, Mr. Ferguson, and yet you increase them." Mr. Ferguson resumed his statement hastily, as if ashamed of the emotion which wet his own eyes, and brought a kindred tremor to his voice. "I have grown grey in the district, Mr. Archibald, and would like ill to leave it now. My whole family were born in Woodsmuir. I have long been a theoretical farmer, you know; and now I will get some of my favorite crotchets put into practice. We shall come into collision Mr. Coulter and I," continued the factor, with a kind of hysterical attempt at a joke, which broke down woefully; "but we will, at least, have a fair field for our respective hobbies; and the prospect of so great an increase, Mr. Archibald, is worth working for." "Yes, to the worker," said Archibald; "but what justice can there be Mr. Ferguson, in you devoting years to increase my income? The fruit of your improvements is clearly your own--not mine." "There! there!" said Mr. Foreman, breaking in impatiently.--"The fact is, Ferguson, that you should have just put in your proposal without any preface to make it hazy. Mr. Ferguson takes Alexander Semple's place, at Alexander Semple's rent, Mr. Sutherland--that's his proposal--continues so, till his improvements are fairly and honestly paying, and then remains your tenant at the advanced rent: we will see that he does not offer you too little. As for the capital, that is our concern; I will undertake that." Archibald Sutherland said some incoherent words of thanks, he did not himself know what--neither did his hearers, as Mr. Ferguson shook his grey eye-lash free of some encumbering moisture, and Mr. Foreman coughed, and cleared his throat. There was a brief pause. "And for yourself, Mr. Archibald?" said the lawyer. "For myself, I do not know. I have formed no definite plan. Give me your counsel: I am ready to do anything." "The bar?" suggested Mr. Foreman. "Medicine?" ventured the factor. Archibald shook his head. "I am no longer a youth, and could ill spare years now for study. Do you know what a great work I am pledged to Mr. Foreman? No less than winning back what I have lost, and doing it in Mrs. Catherine's lifetime. You smile. It looks like a sick fancy, does it not?--yet it is a fancy that stirs me in every vein. I must work, gentlemen--I must work; how hardly I do not care; work for mere mercenary gain. I shall not gain honor with my schoolfellow Robert, Mr. Ferguson; that is beyond my reach. I must toil to the utmost of my strength to regain my birthright. I can afford to lose no time."