'They must soon perceive that I am tabooed by the county families--that no one calls here as of old.' 'Well?' 'Except, perhaps, the people from the Manse and the doctor.' 'Neither--or none--of whom I care to see.' 'And yet I subscribe to all local charities, bazaars, school feasts, as regularly----' 'As if you were an Elder of the Kirk--thereby wasting your money to win a place among the "unco guid," and all to no purpose,' said Hawkey, with the slightest approach to derision. 'Well--well; how I shall succeed with the fair Maude--if I succeed at all--time and a little management, in more ways than one, will show,' he added with knitted brows and hands clenched by thoughts that were full of vague but savage intentions. 'You know the proverb,' said Mrs. Lindsay, with a cold smile, as she lifted up her dog and retired: 'a man may woo as he will, but maun wed where his weird is.' Hawkey Sharpe set his teeth, and his eyes gleamed as he thought with--but did not quote--Georges Ohnet, because he knew him not: 'Money is the password of these venal and avaricious times. Beauty, virtue, and intelligence count for nothing. People no longer say, "Room for the worthiest," but "Room for the wealthiest!"' Then other things occurred to him. 'I am certain that Maude' (he spoke of her as 'Maude' to himself and his sister) 'won't mention our little matter, for cogent reasons, to her brother,' he reflected confidently;. 'but I must work the oracle with Deb about her will. With that heart ailment which she undoubtedly has, she may go off the hooks at any moment, as I, perhaps unwisely, hinted; and I am not lawyer enough to know how old Earlshaugh's last testament may stand; yet, surely, I am Deb's heir-at-law, anyhow, I should think!' Unless Mr. Hawkey Sharpe had indulged--which was not improbable--in 'tall talk,' his language and disposition augured ill for the safety and comfort of Maude's _fiancé_ if he came to Earlshaugh; but Sharpe's threatened vengeance had no decided plan as yet. CHAPTER XVI. 'FOOL'S PARADISE.' The earliest of the guests so roughly referred to by Mr. Hawkey Sharpe, as stated in the preceding chapter, duly arrived in the noon of the following day, and were closely reconnoitred by that personage through a field-glass from an angle of the bartizan, and he was enabled to perceive that there were only two young ladies--a tall, dark-haired one, and another less in stature, very _petite_ indeed, with a small, flower-like face and golden hair; for they were simply the somewhat reluctant Hester Maule and the irrepressible Annot Drummond, for whose accommodation Mrs. Drugget, the housekeeper, had made all the necessary preparations.