"Where else could they be from?" returned his mother; "--come to make our poor country yet poorer!" "They're not English!" "Not they!--vulgar people from Glasgow!" "I think you are too hard on them, mother! They are not exactly vulgar. I thought, indeed, there was a sort of gentleness about them you do not often meet in Scotch girls!" "In the lowlands, I grant, Ian; but the daughter of the poorest tacksman of the Macruadhs has a manner and a modesty I have seen in no Sasunnach girl yet. Those girls are bold!" "Self-possessed, perhaps!" said Ian. Upon the awkwardness he took for shyness, had followed a reaction. It was with the young ladies a part of good breeding, whatever mistake they made, not to look otherwise than contented with themselves: having for a moment failed in this principle, they were eager to make up for it. "Girls are different from what they used to be, I fancy, mother!" added Ian thoughtfully. "The world changes very fast!" said the mother sadly. She was thinking, like Rebecca, if her sons took a fancy to these who were not daughters of the land, what good would her life do her. "Ah, mother dear," said Ian, "I have never"--and as he spoke the cloud deepened on his forehead--"seen more than one woman whose ways and manners reminded me of you!" "And what was she?" the mother asked, in pleased alarm. But she almost repented the question when she saw how low the cloud descended on his countenance. "A princess, mother. She is dead," he answered, and turning walked so gently from the room that it was impossible for his mother to detain him. CHAPTER IX. ME. SERCOMBE. The next morning, soon after sunrise, the laird began to cut his barley. Ian would gladly have helped, but Alister had a notion that such labour was not fit for him. "I had a comical interview this morning," said the chief, entering the kitchen at dinner-time. "I was out before my people, and was standing by the burn-side near the foot-bridge, when I heard somebody shouting, and looked up. There was a big English fellow in gray on the top of the ridge, with his gun on his shoulder, hollo-ing. I knew he was English by his hollo-ing. It was plain it was to me, but not choosing to be at his beck and call, I took no heed. 'Hullo, you there! wake up!' he cried. 'What should I wake up for?' I returned. 'To carry my bag. You don't seem to have anything to do! I'll give you five shillings.'" "You see to what you expose yourself by your unconventionalities, Alister!" said his brother, with mock gravity. "It was not the fellow we carried home the other night, Ian; it was one twice his size. It would take all I have to carry HIM as far!" "The other must have pointed you out to him!" "It was much too dark for him to know me again!" "You forget the hall-lamp!" said Ian.