Sir Patrick took his niece’s hand.
“Stop a minute, Blanche. About Miss Silvester? Have you heard from her to-day?”
“No. I am more unhappy about her than words can say.”
“Suppose somebody went to Craig Fernie and tried to find out the cause of Miss Silvester’s silence? Would you believe that somebody sympathized with you then?”
Blanche’s face flushed brightly with pleasure and surprise. She raised Sir Patrick’s hand gratefully to her lips.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “You don’t mean that you would do that?”
“I am certainly the last person who ought to do it—seeing that you went to the inn in flat rebellion against my orders, and that I only forgave you, on your own promise of amendment, the other day. It is a miserably weak proceeding on the part of ‘the head of the family’ to be turning his
