“Think!” faltered Mr. Wedderburn. “Woman, you must have taken leave of your senses. What is it you mean?--and what should they think but that I’m the friend of the family and a very attached one, and that it’s my business to be here?” “Oh, sir, ye’ll not content your ain judgment with that, far less the rest of the world! It’s no business that brings ye here. Ye come because you’re fain and fond to come. I am the oldest person about the house, and it would ill become me to see my bairn’s wife put in a wrong position, and never say a word. Sir, the mistress is a bonnie and a pleasant woman.” “I have nothing to say against that.” “And no age to speak of. And you yoursel’ what are ye? Comparatively speaking, a young man.” “Comparatively in the furthest sense. I am much obliged to you, Janet.” “Don’t think, sir,” said Janet, solemnly, “that you can carry it off with a laugh. I will not see the mistress put in a wrong position, and never say a word. It may be want of thought; but you must see, if you consider, that she’s not like a young lass to be courted and married. And still less is she one to be made a talk of in all the country side. I will not have my mistress exposed to detractions, and none to the fore to put a stop to them!” said Janet with excitement, striking her staff on the gravel. Mr. Wedderburn stood, feeling the old woman tower over him with her palsied head and threatening air; he was half angry, half amused, wholly discomfited and startled. The situation was ludicrous, and yet it was embarrassing. To be startled out of the happiness of his thoughts by such an interruption, brought to book by an old servant, warned as it were off the premises by the nurse, was almost too whimsical and absurd a position to be treated as serious; and yet there was an uncomfortable reality at the bottom which he could not elude. “Janet,” he said, “my woman--do you not think you are going a little too far? I was just as often at this house when Robert D’yell himself was here.” “No, Mr. Wedderburn, not half so often.” “Nonsense, woman, much more often! and in any way I am not answerable to you. The last thing I could think of,” he added in a troubled tone, “would be to--would be---- You are daft, Janet! I’m their trustee and the nearest of their friends; how dare you say a word about my visits? I will say nothing to your mistress, but I must request you to refrain from such remarks, or else----” “Sir,” cried Janet, “you needna threaten me, for you’re not the master here!” “No, I am not the master here,” said Mr. Wedderburn; “but if you think anybody will have encouragement to set up ill stories about---- No,” he said, checking himself, “I will not blame you with that. You’ve made a mistake; but no doubt your meaning was good--only never let me hear it any more.”