With the full concurrence of Miss Graeme, Donal had persuaded
mistress Brookes--easy persuasion where the suggestion was
enough!--to keep house for him. They went together, and together
unlocked the door of Morven House.
Mistress Brookes said the place was in an awful state. There was not
much, to be sure, for the mason to do, but for the carpenter! It had
not been touched for generations! He must go away, and stay away
till she summoned him!
Donal gladly went home to his hills, and took Davie with him. He
told his father and mother, sir Gibbie and his lady, the things that
had befallen him, and every one approved heartily of what he had
done. His mother took his renunciation of the property as a matter
of course. All agreed it should not be spoken of. When they returned
to Auchars, sir Gibbie and lady Galbraith went with them, and staid
for some weeks. The townsfolk said he was but a poor baronet that
could not speak mortal word.
Lord Morven and Miss Graeme had done their best to make the house
what they thought Donal would like. But in the castle they kept for
him the rooms lady Arctura had called her own. There he gathered the
books, and a few other of the more immediately personal possessions
of his wife--her piano for one--upon which he taught himself to play
a little; and thither he betook himself often on holidays, and
always on Sunday evenings.
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