Archie himself, though he had gone to Glasgow on Mrs. Rowland’s gentle compulsion to escort his aunt, was not perhaps very anxious that she should come. Though he was full of affection for her, it is to be feared that already the cold eye of the butler had worked its effect upon Archie. He felt himself grow red and a cold dew come over his forehead when he thought of that functionary holding his silver dish at Mrs. Brown’s elbow. What unutterable things would be in his eye! Archie felt that Morris looked at himself with a pitying wonder. What, then, would he feel for Mrs. Brown? Therefore he was not disposed to press the matter. As for Mrs. Rowland, the lively prejudice with which he had met her, had been kept up with difficulty in her presence, and he could throw no light on the motive she could have in asking Mrs. Brown. There was, alas, no difficulty whatever in proving to the most casual observer that Mr. Rowland’s family, which in this case was Mrs. Brown’s family, could not in any way be “evened” to the new wife who was supreme at Rosmore. To bring Mrs. Brown to make that doubly sure was a work of supererogation. Archie did not say this to his aunt, but with a burning sense of disadvantages which he had never suspected before he felt it in his own breast. “And how is Mey getting on?” said Jane, when this question was decided. “Oh, well enough. She is just copying everything she sees, like a little parrot, as she is.” “There’s no harm in that,” said Jane, “for I suppose the leddy’s real well-bred and a’ that. It would be nothing but that he marriet her for. He was aye an ambitious man, Jims Rowland. But eh! he’s a good-hearted man--just ower good. I got a letter from him this morning, and he says the allowance will just go on, and I’m to keep the house, and make myself comfortable.” Jane’s ready tears flowed forth upon this argument. “It’s awfu’ kind,” she sobbed; “I wouldna say a word against one of them, nor do a thing to vex him. If he had been my ain brother, he couldna have been more kind--I’m just at my ease for life; and if you could tell me ony thing I could do to please him----” “Maybe it would please him,” said Archie doubtfully, “if you were to come to Rosmore.”