"
She ceased, and after a moment Donal took up the question.
"Lady Arctura is quite right, Davie," he said. "The nature, that is
the good of a thing, is that only by which it can be possessed. Any
other possession is like slave-owning; it is not a righteous having.
The right and the power to use it to its true purpose, and the using
it so, are the conditions that make a thing ours. To have the right
and the power, and not use it so, would be to make the thing less
ours than anybody's.--Suppose you had a very beautiful picture, but
from some defect in your sight you could never see that picture as
it really was, while a servant in your house not only saw it as it
was meant to be seen, but had such delight in gazing on it, that
even in his dreams it came to him, and made him think of things he
would not have thought of but for it:--which of you, you or the
servant in your house, would have the more real possession of that
picture? You could sell it away from yourself, and never know
anything about it more; but you could not by all the power of a
tyrant take it from your servant."
"Ah, now I understand!" said Davie, with a look at lady Arctura
which seemed to say, "You see how Mr. Grant can make me understand!"
"I wonder," said lady Arctura, "what that curious opening in the
side of the chimney-stack means! It can't be for smoke to come out
at!"
"No," said Donal; "there is not a mark of smoke about it.
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