This was some small comfort to Mrs. Ramsay. Balcairnie was, if anything, the wiser and more prudent of the two, and she felt he was, in a sense, on his honour to protect his friend from the consequences of Drumsheugh’s rashness. Perhaps the Lady also counted a little, in the imminence of the peril--for Drumsheugh was already of age and his own master, on a theory which was prevalent among the gossips. They said Balcairnie had been the first captivated by the charms of young Peggy, though he had at once drawn back from rivalry with his laird, and that Peggy on her part had smiled on the farmer till a bigger star appeared in her firmament. Even Balcairnie’s marriage with Peggy would be a great _mésalliance_, but it would not be so heinous an infringement of all social laws as Drumsheugh’s stooping to a cotter lass, either honestly or in sin and shame. Balcairnie’s mother as well as his father was dead, his sisters were married, and his brothers out in the world, so that he was a lone man--if a man can ever be called lone, able to disgrace nobody save himself, by an unequal marriage. The old Lady of Drumsheugh was particularly gracious to Balcairnie at this time. She inquired after his house, if it was in good repair with the plenishing in order? She hinted at the propriety, no less than the probability, of his stiff old housekeeper being superseded by an active young wife. After the next sentence or two, she went the length of asking meaningly for bonnie Peggy Hedderwick, who was so good to her mother and so clever with her hands. Had she not won the maiden at the last harvest? Was not her yarn more in request in Craigie market than that of any other girl or matron in Craigture? And the Lady had heard that from Luckie Hedderwick’s couple of hens Peggy had reared the finest brood of chickens that were to be seen that Candlemas. Such qualities in a young woman were worth her weight in gold, Mrs. Ramsay declared impressively, with her keen eyes fixed steadily on the listener. She had the greatest respect for that girl. The Lady plainly suggested that a farmer, whatever might be said of a laird, need seek no richer dower with his wife than Peggy had to bestow. If the laird’s mother were a consistent woman, no doubt she would call on Peggy and do the Lady’s best to countenance her son’s tenant’s wife, should Peggy receive the promotion of becoming the mistress of Balcairnie. To this stroke of policy Balcairnie merely replied by returning the lady’s fixed stare, with a full and grave stolid look from blue eyes which were not unlike Peggy’s.