Her friend made no attempt to imbue her with her own calm
indifference, nor could she have succeeded had she attempted it.
But though she had never been troubled herself, and that because
she had never been in earnest, she did not find it the less easy to
take upon her the r?le of a spiritual adviser, and gave no end of
counsel for the attainment of assurance. She told her truly enough
that all her trouble came of want of faith; but she showed her no
one fit to believe in.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A CLASH.
All this time, Donal had never again seen the earl, neither had the
latter shown any interest in Davie's progress. But lady Arctura was
full of serious anxiety concerning him. Heavily prejudiced against
the tutor, she dreaded his influence on the mind of her little
cousin.
There was a small recess in the schoolroom--it had been a bay
window, but from an architectural necessity arising from decay, it
had, all except a narrow eastern light, been built up--and in this
recess Donal was one day sitting with a book, while Davie was busy
writing at the table in the middle of the room: it was past
school-hours, but the weather did not invite them out of doors, and
Donal had given Davie a poem to copy. Lady Arctura came into the
room--she had never entered it before since Donal came--and thinking
he was alone, began to talk to the boy. She spoke in so gentle a
tone that Donal, busy with his book, did not for some time
distinguish a word she said.
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