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 affairs, and I said as much to his most Sacred Majesty when he breakfasted at Tillietudlem in the year of grace sixteen hundred and fifty-one, and his most Sacred Majesty was pleased to reply, drinking to my health at the same time in a flagon of Rhenish wine, 'Lady Margaret, ye speak like a Highland oracle.' These were his Majesty's very words; so that your Lordship may judge whether I have not good authority to press young folk to partake of their vivers."

It may be well supposed that much of the good lady's speech failed Lord Evandale's ears, which were then employed in listening for the light step of Edith. His absence of mind on this occasion, however natural, cost him very dear. While Lady Margaret was playing the kind hostess, a part she delighted and excelled in, she was interrupted by John Gudyill, who, in the usual phrase for announcing an inferior to the mistress of a family, said "There was ane wanting to speak to her Leddyship."