his son. I guessed that my words had let him see his own behaviour to the boy in a new light. He saw himself, perhaps, as the bully that he really had been. "This evening, if it is agreeable to you," I replied, equally glad to change the subject, as I had so easily gained my point. "This morning I must spend with Duncan, and in the afternoon I have an appointment with Dr Forbes." "We'll have a long sitting to-night then," he agreed. "I've been reading up some new openings since I played you last. Maybe I'll turn the tables on you yet." After I left him I wondered at my easy victory. I began to think that I had some power over him, as Marigold had suggested. If my chess was responsible it would be easy to hold him in leash. Aboard ship I had not always played my best game. Sometimes I played when I was not in the mood, and once or twice I had even allowed Laird Tanish to win in order to please him. I felt sure that if I really set my mind to it I could mate him every time. At Harvard I had been reckoned the most promising player for years back, and had never lost a game in a tournament. If my prestige with my employer depended upon chess, I felt that I was safe. CHAPTER XI. In the afternoon I walked stranger in Kilbrennan, or to Kilbrennan to keep my ye wudna be speirin' for the appointment with Dr Forbes. I took the short-out over the hills, and found my way quite easily by daylight. As I walked down the farm road above the station, the whole village was laid out before me. It was in a hollow, about two miles from the sea, and comparatively sheltered for the countryside in which it was situated. It was rather a dull-looking village, as they mostly are in Scotland, where the houses are either of cold grey stone or equally unattractive rough-cast. Doactor's hoose," said the grocer, whom I accosted in his doorway. "Gang straucht bye a' the shoaps, an' up the brae beyont. Ye'll see twathree hooses wi' bits o' gairden forenenst them, an' the yin wi' the ivy a' ower it'll be the Doactor's." Having thanked my informant, I followed his directions, and had no difficulty in picking out the ivy-clad villa from the others near-by. The front garden was gay with tulips and golden wallflower. Hyacinths bloomed in the windows, which were curtained with delicately-bordered casement cloth instead of the stiff lace "It's easy seen ye're a curtains that shrouded all I wondered as I walked which was the home of Dr Forbes. the other windows in the box at the village cross. heard his remarks to the dad you, Miss Forbes," I replied. last night, and you had enough "It seems ages since I have insight to diagnose the dad's met any one who is really character for yourself. I cheerful." could see that by the way you spoke. That is why I am entertaining you instead of letting you study the yearbefore-last's 'Graphic' in the consulting-room." village. There was a cheerful bright air about the house that reminded me of what I had seen of England. The smiling maid informed me that the Doctor had been called out unexpectedly, but that Miss Betty awaited me in the "paurler." At the same moment Miss Betty herself appeared upon the scene-and I was immediately at home. "Come along, Doctor Seaton. The dad is out at the moment, and I am commissioned to distract your mind until he comes back. Take a comfy chair. What will you smoke? There are some cigarettes here, but if you prefer a pipe, light up." I found myself in a cosy sitting - room, scented with spring flowers. The furniture was modern and artistic, the walls a soft plain green, and bare but for several landscapes by rising painters of the Glasgow school. A piano stood across one corner, the keyboard open, and a number of sheets of music lay upon the floor. All the chairs were arm-chairs, and all of them looked as comfortable as it is possible for chairs to be. Meanwhile my hostess continued to talk. "You have been a great disappointment to me, Doctor Seaton. When we first heard that an American doctor was coming, I pietured an itinerant party in a very shiny silk hat, selling remedies for rheumatics from an orange Naturally I christened you 'Doctor Quack.' Now you have gone and spoilt my picture. I can't call you names after the way you backed up the dad last night. It was awfully decent of you. By the way, how is our friend the Monster of the Glen today? None the worse for his orgie of hate, I hope?" "Do you mean my employer, Mr Tanish?" I asked with an attempt at distance, but I am afraid that I smiled back at Betty's merry face. One could not help it, for it was a pleasure to be in her presence. I had not seen her properly in the shadows of the doorway on the previous evening, and her beauty came as a shook "It is awfully good of you, Miss Forbes," I said truthfully. "Though you make too much of what I said last night. I heard your father speak up for the dignity of our profession, and I felt that I must support him." "You'll like the dad. He's a dear. You mustn't think that he is afraid of the Monster of the Glen because he didn't answer him on his own lines. It's simply that the dad is quite above all that vulgar abuse. It runs off him like water off a duck. He is a philosopher, and altogether much too fine a man to be shut up in a one-eyed hole like Kilbrennan. He would probably be a Harley Street specialist by this time if he hadn't been afflicted with me. You see, my mother died when I was born, and the dad always insisted on looking after me himself. That is really why he has never got on. I was a miserable little wretch, always having colds and things, and dad said I must live in country air. Therefore he stuck on here instead of taking chances that were offered to him, But wouldn't you like to talk a bit now? I mustn't be greedy." "I'd much rather listen to "Yes, they are a pretty average gloomy lot up at Hopeton. Even poor Marigold has joined the mourners. I have tried to liven her up, but the Monster objects to me, and makes things as unpleasant as he can when I call. I expect, also, that he takes it out of Marigold after I have gone. Why they should all be se dismal I can't quite make out. Of course every one knows about Roy bolting with his father's intended bride, but that hardly seems enough to give them all the miserables." "Do you know Roy at all? What sort of a man is he?" I "Know him, bless you! He was the first sweetheart I ever had. We plighted our troth in an apple-tree at Hopeton about fifteen years ago. admit that I pushed him off the branch soon afterwards, and that he out his head rather badly by coming down on a rake, but we made it up again later, and for years, off and on-with a goodly number of offs-we were lovers." "Then you ought to be one of the gloomy ones too," I suggested smilingly. "I suppose I ought. I'm in the swim really. As for what Roy is like, he is quite a nice boy-hot-headed and quickbut I am sure he would never do anything mean. After all, he had as much right to marry Duncan's governess as bis father had - although why I have never been able to discover. She is one of those pale tragic-looking girls, and she never looked one straight in the face. I am sorry for poor Roy, for I am sure he is in for lots of trouble. I have done my share now. I want to hear something about you. Why are you not more Amurrican? You haven't reckoned or guessed or calculated or said 'Gee' - not once since you came in!" either of them wanted her consultation forenenst us, an' have had the heart to dis- hearty invitation from the I told her something of my past life, and we were still chatting pleasantly when the Doctor came in. "You ken what a doctor's life is, Dr Seaton," he said as he shook my hand heartily. "He canna call his time his ain, so there's nae need for me tae apologise. Has Betty managed tae amuse you wi' her havers?" "Havers yourself, dad," his daughter replied as she took his coat and hat and placed him a chair by the fire. "You know perfectly well you like to hear me blethering, and you expect everybody else to like it too. They are not all doting fathers, you know." "Hoot awa', lassie! You an' your dotin' faithers!" said the old Doctor with a merry smile, as he leant forward to rub his hands in front of the blaze. "Fine ye ken wha's maister in this hoose. Ye daurna stir a finger or gi'e a wag o' your tongue withoot leave frae the tyrant. Noo, rin awa' an' see tae maskin' the tea. Dr Seaton and me ha'e a maist important medical it's nae place for a young lassie." "Squashed!” exolaimed Betty. "I've half a mind to give you no tea at all-only for the credit of Scotland I must be hospitable to the stranger. Get on with your important consultation. I know it. 'Gi'e the bairn plenty o' guid vittles an' fresh air, an' above a' three tablespoonfuls e' cod-liver oil ilka day. It's a graun' thing for bairns. 'Deed an' there's naething the like o' it in the pharmacopœia." As she concluded her burlesque Betty curtsied derisively and took her departure. "There's mony a true word spoken in jest," remarked her father when she had gone. "There's naething wrang wi' Duncan but juist want o' naitural affection in his faither. Keep him oot o' the Laird's sicht an' you'll sune ha'e him weel, an' as Betty says, gi'e him plenty o' guid Norwegian cod-liver oil. It's a graun' thing for bairns. 'Deed an' there's no' the like o' it in-" As he suddenly realised that he was giving me the original of his daughter's imitation he stopped short, and we both laughed heartily. "Weel, weel, we've a' got oor crotchets, an' I'll no' deny that cod-liver oil is yin o' mine." The doctor was such a hearty, jolly old soul that if he had advocated the advantages of strychnine as a bottlefood for infants I should not agree. Doctor to drop in and see them whenever I could. Betty, too, invited me back in her own peculiar but not less By-and-by Betty returned and bore us off to the diningroom for tea. None of your afternoon teas with wafer- genuine-fashion. sandwiches and toy tea-cakes, "I forgive you for deceiving but a genuine square meal! I me," she said, as I shook hands saw for the first time a whole with her. "If you had turned new series of varieties of out the real genuine Amurrican scones - soda scones, whole- doctor, I should have missed meal seones, potato scones, a new person to talk to. Do pancakes, oatcakes, and come and be talked to when Heaven knows what else-all you can. I hope you don't home-baked and all delicious, mean to let the Monster of Betty insisted upon me trying them all, and we made for ourselves a great deal of simple merriment out of the subject. If I have described my visit to the Forbes's at some length, and be sure and come to tea. there is this excuse for it-if there were no other-that it came as such a pleasant relief from the gloom and worry of Hopeton that it impressed me much more strongly than it might have done in other circumstances. the Glen keep you from knowing us. He hasn't bought your soul, has he? If not, I don't see what's to prevent you dropping in here at times We can produce dozens of different kinds of scones yet." I wandered back over the hillside in a happier frame of mind than I had been in since I crossed the border. After all, then, everything in Scotland was not harsh and gloomy, as my first experience tended I left soon after tea, but not before I had received a most to show. (To be continued.) VOL. CCVII. NO. MCCLI. D |